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THE   NATIONAL  HISTORY  OF  FRANCE 

EDITED   BY 
FR.   FUNCK-BRENTANO 

With  an  Introduction  by  J.  E.  C.  BODLEY 


THE  CENTURY  OF  THE 

RENAISSANCE 


THE  NATIONAL  HISTORY  OF  FRANCE 

EDITED  BY   FR.    FUNCK-BRENTANO 

With  an  Intuoduction  by  J.  E.  C.  BODLEY 

THE  MIDDLE  AGES.     By  Fb.  Funck-Bbentano 

[To  be  published 

THE  CENTURY  OF  THE  RENAISSANCE.  By  L. 

Batiffol  [Bead;/ 

THE  GREAT  CENTURY.    By  JACQUES  Boulenger 

[Shortli/ 
THE  XVIIlTH  CENTURY.   ByCASiMiE  Stryienski 

[In  the  Press 

THE   REVOLUTION.    By   Louis    Madelin 

[In  the  Press 

THE  CONSULATE  AND  THE  EMPIRE.    By  Lours 
Madelin  [To  be  Published 

NEW  YORK:  G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS 


THE  NATTONAT.  HISTORY  OF  FRANCE 

THE  CENTURY  OF  THE 
RENAISSANCE 

rCROWNKD    BY    THE   ACADEMIK    DES] 
LSCIENOES  MORALES  ET  POLITIQUESj 

BY 

LOUIS  BATIFFOL 

AUTHOK  OP  "THE  DUCHESSE  DE  CHEVEEUSE" 

TRANSLATED  FROM  THE  FRENCH  BY 
ELSIE    FINNIMORE    BUCKLEY 


WITH  AN  INTRODUCTION  BY 

JOHN  EDWARD  COURTENAY  BODLEY 

COEKESPONDINU  MEMBER  OF  THE  INSTITUTE  OF  FRANCE 


NEW    YORK 
G.    P.    PUTNAM'S  SONS 
1916 


Printed  in  Great  Britain 


DO 
li  ! 


UNIVErS'ITY  or  C  ''7'FrrimA 
SANTA  BAIiiJARA  COLLEJxJ  LIBRAEt 

i  -O  "-t  iJ  .o 


INTRODUCTION 

By  JOHN  EDWARD  COURTENAY  BODLEY 

CORRESPONDING  MEMBER  OF  THE  INSTITUTE  OF  FRANCE 

FOR  the  keener  enjoyment  of  life  there  is  no  pursuit  so 
profitable  and  so  easy  as  the  familiar  study  of  French 
history.  It  does  not  require  that  special  education 
which  enables  the  few  to  find  consolation  at  times  of  trouble 
in  the  ancient  classics,  where  Greek  tragedy  makes  sublime  the 
depths  of  human  woe,  or  where  the  brighter  scepticism  of  Horace 
dispels  for  a  sunny  hour  the  darkest  clouds  of  dejection.  Apart 
from  such  favoured  amateurs  of  distraction  there  are  very 
many  cultivated  English  people  who,  in  their  desultory  or 
regular  reading,  like  to  understand  allusions,  and  who  have  a 
sense  of  missed  enjoyment  when  a  name  of  place  or  person 
conveys  to  them  no  distinct  idea. 

To  comprehend  every  allusion  met  with  in  general  literature 
and  to  recognize  every  name  would  need,  if  not  the  whole  sum 
of  human  knowledge,  at  least  a  portion  so  large  that  it  would  be 
more  conveniently  lodged  in  an  encyclopaedia  than  in  the 
memory  of  man  or  woman.  But  it  is  astonishing  what  an 
extensive  and  enlivening  light  is  thrown  on  ordinary  reading 
by  a  knowledge  of  the  history  of  France.  This  has  always 
been  the  experience  of  English  readers  in  their  perusal 
of  fiction  and  of  memoirs,  of  political  and  of  philosophical 
works.  It  is  more  than  ever  apparent  in  the  present  war-time, 
when  every  morning  brings  a  list  of  places  in  France  where 
things  have  happened,  which  when  details  arc  known,  may  for 
ever  after  be  associated  in  many  a  British  home  with  proud 
sorrow  or  pathetic  rejoicing. 

The  part  of  France  which  is  now  the  scene  of  war  is  a 
relatively  small  tract  of  that  country.     There  is  many  a  pro- 

V 


INTRODUCTION 

vince — Touraine,  Burgundy,  Provence — richer  in  traditions 
of  the  past.  Yet  this  north-eastern  region,  which  includes 
populous  industrial  districts  of  unromantic  aspect  as  well  as 
rural  expanses  of  mountain,  forest,  and  vineyard,  has  more 
historical  associations  on  its  soil  than  the  whole  of  Great  Britain 
— our  comparative  poverty  in  that  respect  being  chiefly  due  to 
our  insular  immunity  from  invasion.  Not  that  all  the  annals 
of  north-eastern  France  are  those  of  siege  and  battle,  as  we 
shall  see  if  we  pass  in  review  some  of  the  place-names  which  to- 
day are  of  warlike  sound  to  English  ears.  From  a  survey  of  this 
limited  portion  of  France,  which  happens  to  be  of  peculiar 
interest  to  us  just  now,  we  shall  gain  some  idea  of  the  wealth  of 
associations  which  abound  on  the  whole  of  French  territory  for 
those  who  enjoy  a  knowledge  of  the  history  of  France. 

In  one  of  the  recurring  periods  of  war  which  desolated  this 
region,  when  Louis  XIV  had  so  many  feats  of  arms  to  celebrate 
that  he  founded  the  Academy  of  Inscriptions  to  invent  devices 
for  his  medals  and  triumphal  arches,  not  a  few  of  the  inscrip- 
tions so  composed  relate  to  towns  on  either  side  of  the  present 
frontier,  the  names  of  which  are  sadly  familiar  in  England  to-day. 
"  Ypris  captis "  and  "  Atrebatum  liberatum,"  engraved  on 
fine  examples  of  the  medallist's  art,  show  that,  in  the  days  of 
la  guerre  en  dentelles,  Ypres  was  taken  and  Arras  relieved  without 
the  barbarous  havoc  which  before  our  eyes  has  irreparably 
wrecked  noble  monuments  which  even  then  were  the  ancient 
pride  of  Flanders  and  of  Artois. 

In  these  war-frequented  provinces  the  memory  of  a  hundred 
battles  and  sieges  in  different  ages  is  revived  in  the  names  of  places 
where  the  forces  of  England  and  France  have  resisted  a  common 
foe.  At  Compiegne  the  Tour  de  la  Pucelle  recalls  Joan  of  Arc 
captured  by  the  Burgundian  army  and  delivered  to  her  execu- 
tioner, Cauchon,  bishop  of  Beauvais.  The  stately  collegiate 
church  of  Saint  Quentin  witnessed  the  deadly  assault  when 
Coligny  and  his  Huguenots  were  overcome,  and  Philip  II  of  Spain 
vowed  to  build  the  Escorial  in  gridiron  shape,  in  honour  of  the 
martyrdom  of  St.  Lawrence,  under  whose  invocation  the 
Catholics  won  the  day.  The  cathedral-crowned  mountain  of 
Laon  stands  above  the  fateful  plain  where  Napoleon,  in  his  last 
struggle  in  France,  might  have  won  a  victory  to  save  him  from 
vi 


INTRODUCTION 

Fontainebleau  and  Elba,  if  Marmont  had  only  come  up  sooner 
from  Berry-au-Bac — that  ferry  on  the  river  Aisne  well-known 
to  all  who  pore  over  the  war-maps  of  to-day. 

While  battle  scenes  such  as  these  make  the  invaded 
French  provinces  of  unusual  interest  to  the  student  of  military 
history,  they  are  rich  in  associations  which  can  charm  the 
imagination  away  from  memories  of  warfare.  Herein  lies  a 
signal  advantage  of  a  familiar  knowledge  of  the  history  of 
France.  The  names  of  places  in  the  dry  official  communiques 
of  the  war  need  no  longer  be  associated  solely  with  heroic  and 
tragic  conflicts.  As  we  scan  them  the  brilliant  procession  of 
the  annals  of  France  defiles  before  us,  illustrating  every  element 
and  phase  of  human  intelligence  and  emotion,  as  expressed  in 
romantic  adventure,  in  ambitious  statecraft,  in  religious  con- 
troversy, in  philosophic  and  popular  movement — all  recorded, 
in  poetry  and  in  prose,  in  that  noble  tongue  which  reflects 
the  genius  of  the  people,  w^ho,  since  their  language  attained  its 
perfection,  have  never  lost  their  proud  position  in  Europe, 
in  spite  of  harsh  vicissitudes. 

Take,  for  instance,  the  little  town  of  Albert  on  the  blood- 
stained road  from  Amiens  to  Arras.  Its  name,  often  men- 
tioned in  the  dispatches,  had  its  origin  in  events  from  v/hich 
modern  France  may  be  said  to  have  sprung.  It  was  once  called 
Ancre,  after  the  rapid  tributary  of  the  Somme  which  flows 
thereby  ;  and  when  Louis  XIII  was  a  boy,  Concini,  the  Italian 
favourite  of  the  Queen-mother,  became  Marechal  and  Marquis 
d'Ancre,  and  governor  of  Picardy.  The  young  king  also  had 
a  favourite,  his  falconer,  Albert  de  Luynes,  who  had  Concini 
slain  on  the  drawbridge  of  the  Louvre  and  inherited  the  Mar- 
quisate,  which,  as  the  name  of  Ancre  had  become  odious,  was 
henceforth  called  Albert.  It  was  out  of  the  disorders  caused 
by  the  government  of  the  two  favourites  that  Richelieu  arose 
and  moulded  the  future  destinies  of  France. 

Then  there  is  Cambrai,  the  witness  of  wars  for  a  thousand 
years,  yet  endowed  with  gentler  associations,  such  as  those  which 
cling  to  the  remains  of  the  archiepiscopal  palace  where  Fenelon 
solaced  his  exile  from  the  Court  by  writing  Telemaque — not 
imagining,  as  Voltaire  said,  how  superior  was  the  pastime  of  his 
banishment  to  his  controversial  works  on  quietism.     At  the  far 

vii 


INTRODUCTION 

limit  of  the  invaded  territory  where  the  German  advance  was 
turned,  stands  another  city,  Mcaux,  which  had  much  to  do 
with  those  same  controversies  ;  for  it  was  there  that  the  mystical 
Mme.  Guyon  was  interned  until  she  retracted  her  doctrines 
before  Bossuet,  who  lies  in  the  cathedral  made  famous  by  his 
eloquence.  It  has  now  a  new  title  to  fame,  since  the  first 
anniversary  of  the  battle  of  the  Marne  was  celebrated  at  its 
high  altar  under  circumstances  not  anticipated  by  the  Eagle  of 
Meaux,  when  mass  was  sung  by  a  gallant  lieutenant  on  leave 
from  active  service,  who  in  civil  life  was  a  Jesuit  father. 

Thence  each  town  and  village  on  the  line  of  the  German 
retreat  is  full  of  old  memories.  A^vay  to  the  right  is  Sainte 
Menehould,  where  Postmaster  Drouet  changed  the  course  of  the 
Revolution  and  the  history  of  Europe  by  his  chance  recognition 
of  Louis  XVI  and  the  Queen  trying  to  escape  from  France 
through  the  Argonne  woodlands.  Westward  from  here  is 
Reims,  where  German  barbarians  showed  that  there  are  even 
worse  enemies  of  noble  architecture  than  restoring  architects, 
w^ho  had  already  ravaged  the  superb  cathedral.  Amid  the 
memorials  of  coronation  pageants  it  is  rarely  remembered  that 
under  its  shadow  La  Fontaine,  till  he  found  his  own  vocation, 
studied  for  the  priesthood,  coming  from  another  ancient  town 
on  the  line  of  retreat.  Chateau  Thierry,  where,  by  the  Marne,  he 
kept  company  with  Maitre  Corheau  and  Petit  Poisson,  W'hose 
descendants  have  watched  the  flight  of  German  airships  or  felt 
the  shock  of  spattering  shells. 

Northward  hence  is  all  that  bombardment  has  left  of  Soissons, 
whither  Louis  XIV  used  to  send  noble  Protestant  maidens  to 
be  converted  to  the  Catholic  faith  in  the  Benedictine  Abbey 
of  Our  Lady.  This  brings  us  again  near  Compiegne,  where 
Louis  le  Grand  in  different  mood  set  up  a  glittering  camp 
as  a  spectacle  for  Mme.  de  Maintenon.  Here  too  is  the 
site  of  another  camp  which  Napoleon  pitched — for  once  in  his 
life  with  peaceful  intent — to  grace  his  first  meeting  with  his  bride. 
Mane  Louise,  when  Berthier,  who  had  married  her  by  proxy, 
brought  her  to  France  as  tribute  from  vanquished  Austria. 
Here  on  the  edge  of  the  forest  is  the  frigid  chateau  of  Louis  XV, 
which  was  warmed  into  boisterous  life  by  the  other  Napoleon, 
who  held  his  gay  court  there  when  Mexico  was  giving  premoni- 
viii 


INTRODUCTION 

tions  of  Sedan,  and  Galliffet,  a  hero  of  both  fatal  campaigns,  led 
the  imperial  revels. 

This  beautiful  woodland  country  is  now  associated  in  many 
English  hearts  w^ith  a  rare  episode  in  the  grim,  underground 
war  of  trenches  ;  for  it  was  here  that  British  cavalry  was  able 
to  charge  the  enemy  in  the  open.  To  one  who  for  many  a 
year  wandered  at  leisure  through  the  exquisite  region  which 
stretches  from  the  confines  of  He  de  France  and  Picardy  to  the 
undulating  plains  of  the  Brie  and  the  vineyards  of  Champagne, 
it  is  difficult  to  realize  that  such  pleasant  scenes,  which  had  lost 
all  trace  of  ancient  battles,  should  now  be  dotted  with  little 
crosses  which  mark  the  resting-places  of  hundreds  of  brave 
young  Englishmen  who  were  the  light  and  joy  of  their  distant 
homes.  When  one  drove  on  a  summer  morning  through  the 
forest,  where  Pierrefonds  rises  among  the  trees  like  a  fairy 
palace,  and  met  with  peasants  on  their  way  to  market  atVillers- 
Cotterets  ;  or  at  the  Fete-Dieu  passed  a  procession  of  rustic 
maidens  crossing  the  fields  to  a  village  by  the  Marne  ;  or 
among  the  autumn  tints  heard  "  le  son  du  cor,  le  soir,  au  fond 
des  bois,"  which  rallied  a  joyous  troop  cantering  along  grass- 
rides  after  the  stag  or  the  wild  boar — how  little  one  thought  that 

Every  turf  beneath  their  feet 
Shall  he  a  soldier's  sepulchre 

— a  sepulchre  in  which  lie  side  by  side  stalwart  young  English 
heroes  in  khaki  and  gallant  little  red-legged  soldiers  of  the 
French  army,  united  in  fraternal  sleep,  never  anticipated  by  the 
w^arriors  of  old  who  passed  this  way,  from  Joan  of  Arc  to 
Napoleon. 

Of  all  the  picturesque  towns  hereabout,  whose  names 
have  now  pathetic  significance  in  many  an  English  home, 
Villers-Cotterets  is  perhaps  most  suggestive  of  historical  reminis- 
cence, for  a  particular  reason.  Noyon,  embowered  in  fruit 
blossom  in  the  spring,  has  the  austere  tradition  of  Calvin, 
descended  from  a  race  of  bargemen  who  lived  upon  the  Oise  ; 
and  the  less  austere  memory  of  its  bishops,  such  as  Clermont- 
Tonnerre  with  his  heraldic  fancies  still  traced  on  a  fragment 
of  the  palace,  and  his  Galilean  presumption  which  moved  him 
to  refer  to  the  Pope    as    "  Monsieur   de  Rome."     Senlis,  sad 

ix 


INTRODUCTION 

victim  of  German  savages,  who  murdered  its  mayor  and  left 
it  in  ruins,  was  so  desirable  that  Saint-Simon  records  how 
the  son  of  the  Grand  Conde  envied  his  family  the  governorship 
of  this  royal  town — "  Monsieur  le  Prince  muguetoit  fort  le 
gouvernement  de  Senlis,"  Yet  Villers-Cotterets,  though  its 
church,  unlike  those  of  Noyon  and  Senlis,  was  never  a  cathedral, 
and  though  its  chateau,  a  faded  memorial  of  the  most  magnificent 
of  royal  builders,  Fran9ois  I,  has  been  put  to  base  uses,  has  an 
importance  in  the  romance  of  French  history  which  none  of  its 
neighbours  can  approach.  For  here  Dumas  Pere  was  born  ; 
and  having  died  during  the  invasion  of  1870  he  was  brought 
back  to  his  birthplace  by  his  illustrious  son  when  the  Germans 
had  departed,  and  he  lies  by  the  side  of  his  parents  beneath  the 
great  trees  of  the  cemetery  at  Villers-Cotterets. 

Whatever  inaccuracies  flowed  from  his  rapid  pen  in  describing 
unfamiliar  scenes,  Dumas'  works  relating  to  his  native  region 
are  better  than  any  guide-book.  There  is  scarcely  a  town  or 
village  of  north-eastern  France  touched  by  the  present  war 
which  he  has  not  illustrated.  Many  of  the  itineraries  traced  in  his 
novels  read  like  passages  from  the  letters  of  English  officers  at 
the  front,  whose  mention  of  place-names  has  escaped  the  censor. 
Take  the  last  youthful  adventure  of  the  Mousquetaires  when 
they  were  riding  down  Milady  to  her  doom.  From  Bethune 
(where  they  had  found  the  red-mantled  headsman),  they  rode 
in  silence  through  the  village  of  Festubert,  past  the  woods  of 
Richebourg,  to  Herlies.  Just  before  Fromelles  a  storm  broke, 
and  then  on  their  right,  by  a  lightning  flash,  they  saw  the  village 
of  Erquinghem,  and  at  midnight,  the  moon,  rising  behind 
Armentieres,  lit  up  the  scene  of  the  drama  on  the  banks  of  the 
Lys.  This  is  pure  romance ;  but  when  Dumas  enters  the 
domain  of  history  we  find  similar  enumeration  of  places  which 
we  all  know  by  name  too  well.  Twenty  years  later,  when  the 
son  of  Athos  was  on  his  way  to  join  the  staff  of  Conde,  just 
before  the  battle  of  Lens,  "  the  little  troop  followed  the  road  to 
Cambrin,  where  they  expected  to  find  the  Prince.  But  he  had 
retired  to  La  Bassee,  having  been  informed  that  the  enemy 
would  cross  the  Lys  at  Estaires.  Misled  by  this  information 
the  Prince  had  withdrawn  his  forces  from  Bethune  and  had 
concentrated  between  Vieille  Chapelle  and  La  Ventie."     What 

X 


INTRODUCTION 

memories  and  associations  the  dozen  names  in  those  two  passages 
evoke  in  the  minds  of  many  an  English  family  which  has  known 
the  anguish  of  suspense  while  waiting  for  news  from  the  front. 

A  score  of  similar  passages,  relating  to  places  where  English 
soldiers  have  fought  and  died  in  the  present  campaign,  are  at 
hand  from  Dangeau,  Saint- Simon,  Voltaire,  and  other  orthodox 
historians  who  wrote  not  long  after  the  events  which  they 
described.  But  Dumas  is  chosen  for  a  special  reason.  To  him 
a  very  large  number  of  English  people  of  the  last  three  genera- 
tions owed  the  only  notions  they  possessed  of  French  history, 
and  many  of  them  were  first  tempted  by  his  fascinating  pages 
to  study  the  authentic  annals  of  France,  a  knowledge  of  which 
doubles  the  enjoyment  of  his  romances  by  enabling  his  readers 
to  reconstitute  the  scenes  while  verifying  their  accuracy.  In- 
deed with  such  a  knowledge  we  may  sometimes  find  that  the 
history  of  France  in  its  unadorned  details  is  more  romantic  than 
any  romance  founded  upon  it.  Thus,  in  Vingt  Ans  Apres  Dumas 
wrote  retrospectively,  in  a  moment  of  exaggerated  restraint,  that 
Concini,  whose  career  we  have  noted,  was  prosaically  hanged  ; 
the  bare  truth  being  that  the  favourite  of  Marie  de  Medicis  was 
shot  by  the  captain  of  the  guard  beneath  the  portcullis  of  the 
Louvre  amid  picturesque  surroundings  of  melodrama. 

After  all,  professional  historians  are  often  more  inaccurate 
than  Dumas  ever  was.  When  he  placed  the  sale  of  Charles  I 
by  the  Scots  in  the  month  of  the  King's  execution,  he  made  a 
milder  error  than  did  Lord  Morley  of  Blackburn,  the  author  of 
several  works  of  serious  merit  on  French  history,  when  in  a  debate 
on  the  Parliament  Bill  he  told  the  House  of  Lords  that  the  "  Day 
of  Dupes  "^on  which  Richelieu  foiled  an  intrigue  of  the  Queen- 
mother  in  1630 — was  an  episode  of  the  Revolution  in  1789,  when 
"  the  aristocrats,  as  they  were  called,  surrendered  their  rights." 
More  pertinent  to  our  subject  than  the  Minister's  mistake 
was  the  failure  of  the  Lords  to  detect  it.  The  force  of  his 
didactic  warning  lay  in  the  allusion  to  the  French  Revolution 
which  had  swept  away  another  nobility,  and  his  words  otTercd  a 
twofold  opening  for  retort — first  that  the  "  Day  of  Dupes  " 
was  159  years  before  the  Revolution  ;  and  second,  that  when 
the  French  nobility  did  surrender  their  privileges  on  a  famous 
day  of  1789,  those  rights  had   no   analogy  whatever  with  the 

xi 


INTRODUCTION 

powers  of  the  House  of  Lords.  While  a  moderate  knowledge 
of  the  capital  events  of  French  history  would  have  furnished  an 
effective  reply,  no  one  moved — neither  the  peers  by  inheritance ; 
nor  the  bishops,  some  of  whom  still  merit  their  consecrated 
epithet  of  "  well-learned  "  ;  nor  even  the  lords  of  the  new 
plutocracy,  who  earned  the  purchase-money  of  their  peerages 
after  enjoying  the  advantages  of  "  a  good  modern  education," 
which  being  innocent  of  the  ancient  humanities  ought  to  include 
the  rudiments  of  modern  history. 

While  the  incident  indicates  the  utility  of  an  acquaintance 
with  French  history,  and  the  limitations  of  educated  English- 
men in  that  pleasant  field  of  knowledge,  there  is  no  doubt  about 
the  keen  interest  which  our  cultivated  classes  take  in  the  litera- 
ture of  France.  Though  a  large  number  of  English  people  read 
the  French  language  as  easily  as  their  own,  there  is  a  considerable 
demand  for  good  translations  of  memoirs  and  historical  works 
among  those  who  are  too  indolent  or  too  diffident  to  read  the 
French  originals.  For  such  the  systematic  study  of  French 
history  is  not  easy  if  they  seek  pleasure  in  their  reading.  There 
is  no  lack  of  English  works  on  various  periods  of  French  history, 
and  among  them  are  a  certain  number  of  valuable  monographs, 
well  written  by  conscientious  workers  who  have  gone  to  original 
sources  for  their  material.  None  the  less  it  must  be  confessed 
that  the  majority  of  English  books  on  the  history  of  France  are 
ill-made  and  unattractive.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  we  have  left 
behind  the  age  when  anything  was  considered  good  enough  for  a 
handbook  of  modern  European  history — as  Matthew  Arnold 
complained  when  his  son,  by  the  rule  of  Balliol,  had  to  read  for 
a  low  "  class  "  in  the  History-school,  from  second-rate  manuals 
produced  by  second-rate  minds,  instead  of  learning  thoroughly 
the  Plato  and  the  Tacitus  set  for  the  old  Pass-degree.  Yet  even 
now  the  compilation  of  books  on  French  history  for  the  use  of 
candidates  for  honours  at  the  Universities  is  sometimes  confided 
to  writers  so  incompetent  that  their  confused  pages  show  that 
they  have  not  mastered  even  the  elements  of  the  French 
language. 

However  good  may  be  a  monograph  which  deals  with  a 
single  period  or  movement,  it  fails  to  give  the  reader  who  has 
little  previous  acquaintance  with  the  subject,  a  general  view 
xli 


INTRODUCTION 

of  the  history  of  a  nation  which  will  make  him  feel  at  home 
in  any  of  its  epochs  and  with  its  chief  characters.  It  would  be 
a  very  great  labour  for  an  Englishman  to  write  a  general  history 
of  France.  Ten  years  of  incessant  toil  would  not  suffice  for  it, 
and  however  well  equipped  the  writer,  the  result  would  certainly 
not  justify  his  trouble.  The  English  reader,  therefore,  who 
would  have  that  general  view  of  French  history  which,  as  was 
said  in  the  first  words  of  this  preface,  will  make  his  outlook  on 
the  world  more  agreeable,  must  find  it  in  a  French  work,  either 
in  its  original  form  or  in  a  translation. 

It  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  history  of  France,  which  is  here 
presented  in  an  English  translation,  will  fulfil  that  purpose. 
The  National  History  of  France — ^which  in  its  original  version 
is  entitled  ^^  Uhistoire  de  France  racontie  a  tous  " — in  form  and 
volume  stands  between  Duruy's  excellent  abridgement  and  the  ex- 
haustive Histoire  de  France,  depuis  les  origines,  jusqu'a  la  Revolu- 
tion, edited  by  M.  Lavisse.  For  a  complete  survej'^  of  French  history 
there  is  no  work  more  useful  than  that  of  Victor  Duruy,  Minister 
of  Education  under  the  Second  Empire,  and  under  the  Third 
Republic  the  successor  of  Mignet,  a  more  academic  historian, 
at  the  French  Academy.  The  industrious  Duruy's  manual  is  a 
marvel  of  compression  and  of  lucid  narrative,  but  is  perhaps  too 
concise  to  be  read  with  pleasure  in  a  translation.  On  a  different 
plan  is  the  more  recent  work,  edited  by  M.  Lavisse,  each  section 
of  which,  written  by  an  expert,  is  an  invaluable  guide  for  the 
special  student — such  as  that  masterpiece  of  attractive  erudition 
Les  Premiers  Capetiens  by  the  lamented  Achille  Luchaire.  But 
this  series  of  big  volumes  is  perhaps  too  long  for  general  readers. 

The  National  History  of  France  is  planned  on  the  same  model 
— but  on  a  smaller  scale.  It  is  written  for  a  more  numerous 
though  not  a  less  cultivated  class  of  readers.  The  serious  student 
will  find  in  it  a  scientific  exposition  of  the  development  of  France 
from  the  period  when  it  first  became  a  homogeneous  nation 
down  to  the  lifetime  of  old  people  whom  some  of  us  have 
known.  The  reader  who  looks  for  artistic  or  romantic  diversion 
will  meet  with  many  a  page,  drawn  from  contemporary  memoirs 
or  correspondence,  which  illustrates  the  manners,  the  social 
conditions,  the  intellectual  achievement  of  successive  genera- 
tions of  the  French. 

xiii 


INTRODUCTION 

Each  volume  of  this  history  has  been  written  by  an  author 
whose  ability  has  been  recognized  by  competent  French  autho- 
rities, and  all  of  them  but  one  are  "  Laureates  "  of  the  Institute 
of  France.  The  Institute,  with  the  five  Academies  composing 
it,  holds  vast  revenues  to  distribute  for  the  encouragement  of 
every  branch  of  human  intelligence.  About  £18,000  of  these 
funds  are  dispensed  each  year  in  prizes  for  recently  published 
books.  Many  of  the  prizes  awarded  by  the  Academic  Fran9aise 
and  the  Academic  des  Sciences  Morales  are  for  works  on  history, 
and  often  an  historian  who  has  won  fame  and  a  seat  in  one  or 
both  of  those  companies  found  his  first  incentive  when  he  carried 
off  a  prize  together  with  the  title  of  "  Laureate  of  the  Institute." 

Those  who  fear  that  criticism  in  France  is  going  the  way  that 
George  Meredith  thought  it  had  taken  in  England  when  he 
wrote,  "  I  have  seen  many  reviews,  not  one  criticism  of  my 
books,"  should  look  at  the  reports  of  the  academicians  who 
recommend  the  awards  of  these  prizes.  Hidden  away  in  the 
official  Bulletins,  they  are  sometimes  fine  examples  of  that  critical 
faculty  which  is  inborn  in  most  Frenchmen,  and  a  prize-winner 
often  feels  that,  with  a  substantial  recompense,  he  has  received 
a  stimulating  criticism  which  if  heeded  will  add  to  the  value  of 
his  future  work.  A  history  book  "  crowned  "  by  the  Institute 
is  sure  to  be  a  sound  piece  of  work,  sometimes  the  first-fruits  of  a 
promising  career,  sometimes  a  masterpiece  of  mature  talent ;  for 
historians  as  eminent  as  Albert  Sorel  and  Albert  Vandal  {nulli 
flehiliores  quam  mihi)  have  been  glad  to  submit  their  work  to  an 
academic  prize  tribunal.  While  poets  and  novelists  have  some- 
times revolted  against  the  taste  of  the  French  Academy,  com- 
plaint is  rarely  heard  of  the  judgment  of  the  Institute  of  France 
in  appraising  historical  work. 

The  Institute  thus  fulfils  the  traditional  functions  of  aca- 
demies in  maintaining  a  certain  standard  of  excellence ;  it  also 
out  of  its  wealth  aids  promising  writers  to  persevere  in  their 
work,  relieved  from  that  care  which  often  dogs  unremunerated 
literary  labour.  One  reason  for  the  rarity  we  have  noted  of 
good  English  monographs  on  French  history  is  the  cost  of  their 
production.  An  eager  student  spends  time  and  money  in 
exploring  foreign  archives,  and  on  his  researches  writes  a  book 
of  real  value.  If  he  is  urged  to  continue  his  work  he  will  reply 
xiv 


INTRODUCTION 

that  he  cannot  aft'ord  it,  as  the  only  material  result  of  his  labour 
is  a  debt  to  his  publisher.  Many  an  English  author  of  such 
unrequited  work  would  in  France  be  aided  in  his  difficult  years 
by  the  substantial  encouragement  of  academic  prizes.  The  well- 
meaning  people  who  periodically  conceive  the  idea  of  starting 
in  England  an  Academy  on  the  French  model  should  bear  in 
mind  that  even  if  they  could  possess  the  unattainable  authority 
of  tradition  for  performing  academic  functions,  they  would  still 
need  rich  endowments  to  make  their  influence  effective. 

M.  Louis  Batiffol's  history  of  the  age  of  the  Renais5jance  in 
France,  which  forms  this  volume,  was  awarded  the  Prix  Ferret 
by  the  Academic  des  Sciences  Morales  et  Politiques.  The 
report  of  M.  Welschinger,  recommending  that  award,  is  an 
admirable  example  of  the  judicious  criticism  which,  as  has  been 
observed,  academicians  bestow  on  the  books  submitted  to  their 
examination.  M.  Welschinger  is  a  patriotic  Alsatian,  who  for 
five-and-forty  years  has  been  longing  for  the  day — perhaps 
nearly  in  sight — when  his  birthplace  and  the  scenes  of  his 
youth  may  be  once  more  united  to  France.  This  loyal  patriot 
is  also  an  accomplished  writer  of  French  history  in  its  most 
attractive  guise,  whose  work  had  won  the  highest  academic 
recompenses  before  he  was  called  to  a  seat  in  the  Palais  Mazarin. 
His  report  on  M.  Batiffol's  work  is  one  of  those  which  shows 
what  an  advantage  writers  enjoy  in  France  to  have  their  early 
efforts  reviewed  and  analysed  by  distinguished  veterans  who 
have  won  fame  in  their  own  paths  of  literature. 

The  National  History  of  France  when  complete  will  have  as 
its  first  part  a  volume  on  the  Middle  Ages  by  M.  Funck-Brentano, 
the  editor  of  the  series,  the  other  books,  in  their  order  of  publica- 
tion, being  The  Century  of  the  Renaissance,  by  M.  Louis  Batiffol ; 
The  Great  Century  {Le  Grand  Sieclc),  by  M.  Jacques  Boulenger  ; 
The  Eighteenth  Century,  by  M.  Casimir  Stryienski ;  The  Revolu- 
tion, by  M.  Louis  Madelin  ;  and  The  Consulate  and  the  Empire, 
by  the  same  author. 

Pending  the  publication  of  the  volume  on  the  Middle  Ages, 
the  English  reader  need  have  no  reason  to  regret  that  his  study  of 
French  history  begins  at  a  later  period.  For  it  was  only  with  the 
Renaissance  that  the  territory  which  we  know  as  France  became 
a  nation,  and  took  its  place  on  the  map  of  Europe  in  a  shape  not 

b  XV 


INTRODUCTION 

far  removed  from  its  present  contour — though  each  subsequent 
century  has  seen  considerable  adjustments  of  its  frontier,  which 
have  not  yet  come  to  an  end.  It  was  during  the  Renaissance 
that  the  French  language  developed  its  present  form.  Until 
then  French  was  a  language  which  in  its  relation  with  modern 
French  may,  in  an  unscientific  way,  be  compared  with  the 
language  of  Wyclif's  Bible  in  its  relation  with  the  English  of  the 
Authorized  Version.  Just  when  that  period  was  ending  "  Enfin 
Malherbe  vint  " — as  Boileau  wrote  to  a  later  generation — and, 
doing  for  poetry  what  Calvin,  Amyot,  La  Boetie  and  Montaigne 
had  already  done  for  prose,  with  them  gave  to  the  newly-formed 
nation  the  noble  language  which  more  than  any  other  element 
has  contributed  to  the  greatness  of  France. 

Our  narrative  begins  before  either  of  those  writers  was 
born,  in  1483,  with  the  death  of  Louis  XI  at  Plessis-le-Tours, 
and  it  is  a  good  starting-point  for  the  English  student  of  the 
modern  history  of  France.  He  must  bear  in  mind  the  im- 
portance of  the  reign  of  Louis  XI,  who,  coming  after  the  Hundred 
Years'  War,  carried  on  the  work  of  the  unification  of  France  with 
results  more  definitive  than  those  produced  by  the  expulsion  of 
the  English  when  Joan  of  Arc  inspired  the  idea  of  nationality. 
The  Burgundian  domain  of  Charles  the  Bold  was  only  a  small 
part  of  his  annexations,  when  he  crushed  the  feudal  territorial 
houses  and  out  of  their  ruins  began  the  building  of  the  absolute 
French  monarchy  on  the  double  basis  of  unity  of  government 
and  unity  of  territory.  In  1483  it  was  only  thirty  years  since 
the  taking  of  Constantinople  by  the  Turks,  and  the  invention 
of  printing.  As  Hume  says,  writing  of  two  years  later,  "  We 
have  at  last  reached  the  dawn  of  civility  and  science."  The 
Renaissance  was  in  full  progress  ;  but  it  was  so  young  that  it 
was  only  in  1483  that  two  lives  began  which  in  different  ways 
affected  the  course  of  one  of  its  greatest  movements — Martin 
Luther  and  Catherine  of  Arragon  being  born  in  that  year. 

M.  Batiffol  is  a  skilful  guide  through  that  most  important 
century  of  human  progress  which  spans  the  interval  between 
the  Middle  Ages  and  modern  civilization.  It  is  a  confused  epoch 
of  French  history,  a  period  of  contradictory  movements  and 
currents,  in  w^hich  the  nation  was  only  beginning  to  discover  its 
destiny.  The  author  instead  of  subjective  dissertations  on  the 
origins  of  events  and  movements,  gives  us  a  series  of  vivid 
xvi 


INTRODUCTION 

pictures  and  portraits,  chiefly  taken  from  contemporary  records, 
and  the  result  is  an  animated  narrative  which  cannot  fail  to 
impress  the  memory  and  charm  the  imagination  of  the  reader. 

After  the  sinister  and  forcible  figure  of  Louis  XI,  his  young 
son,  Charles  VIII  (1483-1498)  and  his  cousin,  the  virtuous 
Louis  XII  (1498-1515),  are  somewhat  pale  shadows.  France, 
becoming  a  united  nation,  was  prosperous,  but  the  importance 
of  territorial  unity  was  not  yet  understood.  The  lure  of  Italy 
tempted  these  kings  and  their  immediate  successors  to  try  to 
extend  their  domain  beyond  the  Alps,  instead  of  consolidating 
the  conquests  of  Louis  XI,  which  were  so  little  valued  that 
Artois  and  Franche  Comte  were  ceded  in  their  vain  efforts  to 
annex  Italian  provinces.  Their  failure  was  a  blessing  for 
French  nationality,  and  the  main  result  of  the  Italian  cam- 
paigns was  the  importation  to  France  of  the  artistic  spirit  of  the 
Renaissance.  How  much  France  owed  to  the  Italian  Renais- 
sance is  discussed  in  these  pages.  Even  if  the  debt  is  smaller 
than  usually  estimated,  as  M.  Batiffol  argues,  the  Italian 
artists  brought  to  France  by  Fran9ois  I  (1515-1547)  un- 
doubtedly had  a  great  influence  on  the  native  genius.  In 
popular  tradition  that  king  was  a  magnificent  voluptuary,  the 
munificent  patron  of  artists  and  of  poets.  Yet  as  one  reads  the 
fascinating  story  of  his  reign  one  wonders  how  he  found  the 
time  to  hold  a  brilliant  court  and  to  adorn  France  with  sump- 
tuous monuments  of  domestic  architecture,  which  taking  the 
place  of  the  fortified  feudal  castles,  seem  to  have  been  planned  at 
leisure  for  the  enjoyment  of  luxurious  peace.  If  one  studied 
his  reign  in  an  old-fashioned  history  dealing  only  with  public 
events  and  international  relations,  he  would  seem  to  be  a  warrior 
king  passing  from  Italian  battlefields  to  Spanish  prisons,  the 
rival  or  the  captive  of  the  Emperor  Charles  V,  instead  of  the 
builder  of  Fontainebleau  and  Chambord,  the  patron  of  Clement 
Marot,  Jean  Goujon  and  Philibert  Delorme. 

The  shorter  reign  of  his  son  Henri  II  (1547-1559),  who  had 
little  taste  for  art,  was  associated  with  two  women.  There  was 
his  wife  Catherine  de  Medicis,  destined  to  play  a  great  part  when 
she  became  Queen-mother;  and  there  was  his  amie  Diane  de 
Poictiers,  whose  cipher,  still  seen  on  the  walls  of  Chenonceaux 
intertwined  with  that  of  Henri,  suggests  the  romantic  union  of 
two  young  lives  to  console  a  king  whose  childhood  was  saddened 

xvii 


INTRODUCTION 

by  captivity  in  Spain  as  a  hostage  for  his  father,  and  who  was 
married  to  an  unattractive  wife.  In  these  pages  it  is  written 
that  when  Henri  II  succeeded  at  the  age  of  twenty-nine,  Diane 
was  nearly  fifty  and  was  the  pious  companion  of  the  royal 
couple,  under  whose  influence  the  King  was  an  affectionate 
husband — an  edifying  version  of  the  royal  romance. 

While  such  sidelights  on  history  are  instructive  and  enter- 
taining, the  great  undercurrent  of  French  history  in  the 
sixteenth  century  must  not  be  ignored.  While  the  spirit  of 
reform  was  transforming  the  civilized  world  in  art,  letters, 
philosophy,  and  religion,  there  was  no  such  movement  affecting 
the  system  of  government  in  France.  The  Renaissance  con- 
solidated the  absolute  powers  of  the  monarchy,  and  from  the 
reign  of  Fran9ois  I  the  ancien  regime  may  be  said  to  have 
begun,  "^his  is  an  important  fact  to  be  noted  by  the  student 
who  follows  the  history  of  France,  in  the  volumes  which  will 
succeed  this,  through  the  seventeenth  century,  early  in  which 
the  policy  of  Richelieu  under  Louis  XIII  leads  to  the  absolute 
reign  of  Louis  XIV,  and  through  the  eighteenth  century,  in 
which  the  excesses  of  absolute  monarchy  lead  to  the  catastrophe 
of  1792.  In  the  sixteenth  century,  whatever  the  feeling  in  the 
nation  about  the  character  of  the  sovereign,  whatever  the 
controversy  about  the  succession  to  the  Crown,  whatever  the 
religious  test  to  which  the  King  had  to  submit,  there  is  no 
aspiration,  no  movement  towards  popular  government. 

After  Henri  II  came  the  turbulent  reigns  of  his  three  sons  : 
Francois  II  (1559-1560)  who  died  at  seventeen,  the  tragic  boy- 
husband  of  Mary  Queen  of  Scots  ;  Charles  IX  (1560-1574),  who 
was  a  king  at  nine  ;  Henri  III  (1574-1589),  an  effeminate 
prodigal,  the  extravagances  of  whose  Court  began  that  disarray 
of  the  public  finances  which  was  never  permanently  repaired 
till  it  ended  two  centuries  later  in  the  Revolution,  of  which  it  was 
the  chief  determining  cause.  In  these  reigns  the  Reformation 
took  a  dramatic  form.  It  had  begun  under  Fran9ois  I,  when 
Clement  Marot,  leaving  his  madrigals,  rhymed  a  Huguenot 
version  of  the  Psalms — as  did  the  author  of  Comus  in  the  next 
century,  under  dissimilar  circumstances.  Among  the  Protest- 
ants were  the  greatest  names  of  France — La  Rochefoucauld, 
Grammont,  Conde,  Rohan,  La  Tremouille.  But  the  time  had 
not  yet  come  for  Protestantism  to  be  withstood  as  a  power 
xviii 


INTRODUCTION 

within  the  State.  The  imperium  in  imperio  which  was  resisted 
by  the  last  of  the  Valois  kings  was  the  catholic  League,  headed 
by  the  Guises,  a  family  of  unbounded  ambition,  which  had 
intended  to  rule  France  by  Mary  Queen  of  Scots,  whose  mother 
was  a  Guise  ;  and  when  the  death  of  her  husband  sent  her  back 
to  Scotland,  the  clan  devoted  its  power  and  ability  to  obtain 
the  supremacy  by  other  means.  The  story  is  graphically  told 
in  these  pages,  how  Catherine  de  Medicis,  who  had  encouraged 
one  of  her  sons,  Charles  IX,  to  countenance  the  Protestant 
massacre  of  St.  Bartholemew,  abetted  his  brother  Henri  III  to 
wage  war  on  the  catholic  League  and  to  have  Henri  de  Guise 
murdered  before  his  eyes  at  the  Chateau  of  Blois. 

With  Henri  IV  (1589-1610)  the  crown  of  France  fell  to  the 
Bourbon  family,  which  was  the  last  line  of  French  kings.  The 
reign  which  began  with  civil  war  and  anarchy  became  pacific 
when  Henri  of  Navarre  abjured  the  Protestantism  of  which  he 
was  the  champion  and  embraced  the  religion  of  the  majority  of 
his  subjects.  In  becoming  a  Catholic  the  King  did  not  adopt  the 
inflexible  policy  of  his  new  faith.  By  the  Edict  of  Nantes  he 
established  liberty  of  conscience  in  matters  religious,  and  by 
thus  proclaiming  the  modern  principle  of  toleration  he  illus- 
trated his  reign  by  a  definitive  rupture  with  the  Middle  Ages. 
Among  the  Protestants  he  chose  the  wisest  of  all  his  counsellors, 
Sully,  whose  re-organization  of  the  disordered  national  finances 
established  the  prosperity  of  France  on  so  firm  a  basis  that  it 
took  three  long  reigns  of  prodigality  to  undo  all  his  good  work. 

With  the  end  of  the  reign  of  Henri  IV  this  volume  closes.  It 
leaves  France  consolidated  as  a  nation,  enjoying  temporary 
peace  and  a  more  solid  prosperity,  after  long  years  of  warfare  at 
home  and  abroad.  In  that  period  of  frequent  civil  war,  in 
which  the  king  was  constantly  in  conflict  with  part  of  the 
nation,  we  have  noted  that  the  issue  to  be  decided  was  never 
the  power  of  the  Crown  or  the  monarchical  principle.  Another 
point,  not  less  important,  is  to  be  observed.  In  the  civil  wars  of 
this  age  which  were  known  as  the  Wars  of  Religion,  the  forces 
opposed  to  the  doctrines  and  claims  of  Rome  were  little  in- 
fluenced by  that  rationalistic  "  free-thought  "  which  later  became 
the  chief  factor  in  the  opposition  of  the  French  nation  to  the 
Roman  Church.  In  the  Reformation  epoch  the  struggle  was 
between    Catholic    believers    and    Protestant    believers.     The 

xix 


INTRODUCTION 

execution  of  Etienne  Dolet,  who  held  heretical  opinions  which 
happened  to  be  atheistic,  was  an  almost  isolated  case  having  no 
connexion  with  any  great  intellectual  movement  such  as  was  to 
come. 

When  Henri  IV  died  in  1610  the  French  language  as  we  have 
seen  had  attained  its  classical  form  ;  but  the  great  masters  who 
were  soon  to  give  expression  to  it  were  as  yet  unborn,  excepting 
one  or  two,  such  as  Descartes,  who  was  fourteen,  and  Corneille, 
six  years  old.  In  respect  of  national  literature  England  was  in 
advance  of  France,  for  in  1610  Shakespeare  had  nearly  com- 
pleted his  work.  But  in  the  age  which  was  then  dawning, 
France  after  a  tardy  start  Avas  to  surpass  its  neighbour  for  a 
time  in  the  splendour  of  its  literature.  The  new  period  was  so 
abundant  and  illustrious  in  intellectual  achievement  that  it  has 
been  called  by  posterity  the  Grand  Siecle. 

The  boundaries  of  the  Grand  Siecle  are  not  unanimously 
defined.    Some  make  it  co-terminous  with  the  reign  of  Louis  XIV 
(1643-1715).     Others  extend  it  to   the    Regency  (1715-1723), 
under  which  such  great  writers  as  Saint  Simeon,  Le  Sage  and 
Montesquieu  did  some  of  their  work.  M.  Jacques  Boulenger  in  the 
second  part  of  the  English  edition  of  this  history,  considers  the 
reigns  of  Louis  XIII  and  Louis  XIV  to  constitute  the  Grand 
Siecle.     There  is  good  reason  for  including  in  it  the  reign  of 
Louis  XIII  (1610-1643),  which  in  politics  saw  the  whole  career 
of  Richelieu  and  in  literature  the  finest  dramas  of  Pierre  Corneille. 
In  commenting  upon  this  and  the  other  volumes  of  the 
series  no  attempt  will  be  made  to  give  a  summary  of  the  events 
recorded  in  them,  which  are  probably  familiar  to  the  majority  of 
the  readers  of  this  work.     But  for  those  who  are  commencing 
their  study  of  French  history  it  may  be  useful  to  take  a  rapid 
view  of  some  of  the  movements  which  mark  the  periods  extend- 
ing from  the  end  of  the  Renaissance  to  the  French  Revolution. 
The  reign  of  Louis  XIII  was  the  reign  of  Richelieu,  who, 
having  been  the  spokesman  of  the  clergy  at  the  meeting  of  the 
States  General  when  the  King  was  a  boy  of  thirteen,  became 
Minister  two  years  later.     It  was  owing  to  the  outgrowth  of 
Richelieu's  policy  that  the  representatives  of  the  nation  never 
met  again  till  1789.     Although  the  Third  Estate  made  some 
revendication  of  the  rights  of  the  commons,  it  was  not  with  them 
that  Richelieu  joined  issue.     He  had  to  deal  with  the  great 

XX 


INTRODUCTION 

nobles,  still  tenacious  of  their  old  feudal  rights,  who  again  and 
again  revolted  against  the  practical  application  of  his  theory 
that  all  the  political  power  of  the  nation  should  be  vested  in  the 
King.  Many  of  the  nobles  were  Protestants  and  utilized  the 
privileges  of  association,  granted  to  the  Huguenots  by  Henri  IV, 
to  set  up  a  State  within  the  State,  Richelieu  crushed  the 
Protestants  and  the  nobles  too,  whether  Huguenot  or  Catholic. 
He  died  six  months  before  Louis  XIII,  leaving  the  monarchy 
in  a  position  of  absolute  power,  such  as  the  most  masterful  of  the 
Valois  kings  had  never  contemplated. 

Richelieu's  twofold  work,  the  investiture  of  the  sovereign 
with  absolute  power,  the  abuses  of  which  led  to  the  Revolution, 
and  its  corollary,  the  centralization  of  government,  which  still 
is  the  basis  of  the  French  administrative  system,  had  one  rapid 
result.  The  feudal  aristocracy,  with  its  localized  influence,  was 
transformed  into  a  noblesse  de  cour  which  established  itself  in  the 
royal  precincts,  and  out  of  this  arose  French  polite  society, 
which  soon  became  the  most  brilliant  that  the  world  has  ever 
seen.  During  the  reign  of  Louis  XIII  and  the  minority  of 
his  son  the  Hotel  de  Rambouillet  and  the  rival  salons 
became  the  centre  of  all  that  was  most  distinguished  by 
birth  or  intelligence,  and  Cardinal  Richelieu  had  in  1635 
founded  the  French  Academy,  thus  securing  the  support  of 
men  of  letters  to  further  his  policy.  Henceforth  French  history 
in  its  minutest  detail  may  be  studied  in  most  attractive  form. 
For  the  age  of  Memoirs  had  arrived,  and  the  use  which  has  been 
made  of  them  in  M.  Boulenger's  and  the  following  volumes 
should  tempt  many  readers  to  find  inexhaustible  delight  in  the 
originals.  They  will  not  fail  to  be  so  tempted  by  M.  Bou- 
lenger's narrative — which  is  as  easy  to  read  as  a  romance — 
in  order  to  make  more  intimate  acquaintance  with  some  of 
the  makers  of  the  Grand  Siecle,  of  whom  only  a  passing 
glimpse  can  be  given  in  his  attractive  pages. 

Louis  XIV  was  not  five  years  old  when  he  began  his  reign, 
and  during  his  minority  the  policy  of  Richelieu  was  continued  by 
his  successor  the  Sicilian  Mazarin,  for  whom  the  greater  Car- 
dinal had  obtained  a  red  hat,  and  to  whom  the  Queen-Regent, 
Anne  of  Austria,  gave  her  affection  as  well  as  her  confidence. 
The  story  of  the  long  reign  of  Louis  XIV  is  in  one  sense  the 
chronicle  of  his  Court,  for  the  people  counted  only  as  so  many 

xxi 


INTRODUCTION 

millions  of  human  beings  capable  of  being  taxed.  For  this, 
before  another  century  ended,  the  monarchy  had  to  pay  the 
supreme  penalty.  Meanwhile  the  civil  strife  which  disturbed 
the  minority  of  Louis  XIV  did  not  shake  the  ever  growing  royal 
authority.  When  the  Parlement,  which  was  not  a  representa- 
tive body  but  a  corporation  of  magistrates  with  quasi-legislative 
powers,  resisted  the  King's  government,  and  when  this  move- 
ment developed  into  the  first  war  of  the  Fronde,  the  leaders  on 
both  sides  professed  their  devotion  to  the  person  and  to  the 
office  of  the  King — in  contrast  to  what  had  happened  in  England 
in  that  year  1649.  So  on  Mazarin's  death,  when  Louis  was 
twenty-three,  all  was  prepared  for  his  absolute  autocracy,  and 
he  was  trained  and  ready  to  exercise  it.  Other  kings  of  France 
had  reigned  with  unlimited  powers  ;  but  Louis  XIV  established 
absolute  monarchy  as  a  divine  theory. 

This  being  accepted  by  his  subjects,  so  far  as  they  had  any 
voice  in  the  matter,  there  arose  out  of  the  absolute  prerogatives 
of  the  King  a  sentiment  corresponding  to  what  later  on  was 
called  patriotism.  The  word  in  its  French  form  is  not  found  in 
the  Dictionary  of  the  Academy  until  the  next  century,  for  it 
did  not  exist  in  the  Grand  Siecle,  the  sentiment  as  yet  being 
inspired  not  by  the  patrie  and  the  soil  of  France,  but  by  the 
person  and  the  office  of  the  King.  The  glories  of  France,  in 
war  and  in  peace,  show  how  strong  that  devotion  was.  The 
highest  exponents  of  the  genius  of  the  nation,  in  every  branch 
of  human  intelligence  and  action,  were  proud  of  the  monarch 
who  encouraged  it,  and  who  with  their  co-operation,  added  to  the 
national  patrimony  not  only  rich  territories,  but  a  greater  glory 
than  that  of  conquest — the  intellectual  supremacy  of  France 
and  of  the  French  language. 

When  Louis  XIV,  his  minorit}'-  ended,  took  the  government 
into  his  own  hands,  the  genius  of  France  which  illustrated  the 
seventeenth  century  was  already  in  full  development.  In  letters 
the  work  of  Pascal,  in  art  the  work  of  Lesueur  and  Poussin  was 
done.  But  that  posterity  was  not  wrong  in  giving  the  name  of 
"  the  age  of  Louis  XIV  "  to  the  most  brilliant  period  of  the 
seventeenth  century  is  shown  by  a  very  incomplete  list  of  those 
who  served  him  or  who  enjoyed  his  protection  :  La  Rochefou- 
cauld, Moliere,  La  Fontaine,  Bossuet,  Boileau,  Racine  in  letters  ; 
in  art,  Lebrun  and  Mansard  ;  in  war  Turenne,  Conde,  Louvois  ; 
xxii 


INTRODUCTION 

in  civil  and  financial  administration  Colbert.  After  Colbert's 
death  in  1683  the  glory  began  to  fade,  though  the  reign  had  still 
thirty-two  years  to  run.  War  and  the  King's  extravagance, 
notably  in  the  building  of  Versailles  and  other  royal  palaces, 
brought  dire  distress  upon  the  people,  owing  to  the  unjust  inci- 
dence of  taxation.  Two  years  after  the  death  of  Colbert,  who 
began  to  re-organize  on  a  sound  basis  the  finances  of  France  and 
founded  its  industrial  prosperity,  Louis  XIV  revoked  the  Edict 
of  Nantes.  It  was  the  greatest  blunder  of  his  reign.  The  in- 
tolerant act,  which  gave  religious  monopoly  to  the  Catholic 
Church,  was  one  of  the  causes  of  the  philosophic  movement  in 
the  next  century  hostile  to  all  religion.  It  was  also  economically 
disastrous,  as  the  persecution  of  the  Protestants  swept  out  of 
France  the  industry,  the  intelligence  and  the  wealth  of  a  large 
community.  This  folly  was  committed  when  the  King  had  fallen 
under  the  influence  of  Mme.  de  Maintenon.  Had  she  died  and 
had  the  great  financier  lived  to  direct  his  master,  the  reign  of 
Louis  XIV  perhaps  would  have  been  as  solidly  glorious  as  it  w^as 
on  the  surface,  and  the  monarchy  might  have  avoided  the 
Revolution,  which  Mirabeau  said  at  its  outset  was  the  result  of 
"  two  centuries  of  depredation  and  brigandage." 

While  the  brilliant  Court,  which  insatiably  swallowed  up  the 
resources  of  the  nation,  had,  with  its  social  authority,  high 
influence  in  the  domain  of  art  and  letters,  the  nobles  composing 
it  had  no  political  power.  This  point,  already  mentioned  in 
this  preface,  cannot  be  too  clearly  borne  in  mind  by  the  English 
student  of  French  history,  Avho  is  apt  to  suppose  that  there  was 
some  analogy  between  the  attributes  of  the  French  nobility  and 
the  English  peerage.  The  reign  of  Louis  XIV  was  so  long  that 
it  covered  several  entire  epochs  of  English  history,  in  which  the 
relative  positions  of  the  Crown  and  the  Estates  of  the  Realm 
were  settled.  It  began  in  the  year  that  Hampden  fell,  when 
Charles  I  was  fighting  for  the  right  divine  to  tax  his  subjects.  It 
did  not  end  until  England,  by  Act  of  Parliam^ent,  had  imported 
the  Hanoverian  dynasty,  and  George  I  was  reigning  under 
statutory  limitations.  During  the  reign  of  Louis  XIV,  which 
had  strengthened  his  absolute  prerogatives,  our  two  Revolutions 
had  so  settled  the  British  Constitution  that  the  monarchy  was 
subordinate  to  the  Parliament,  of  which  the  House  of  Lords 
had  legislative  powers  similar  to  those  of  the  House  of  Commons. 

xxiii 


INTRODUCTION 

In  England  the  hereditary  nobOitywas  a  very  limited  body  enjoy- 
ing immense  political  power  which  descended  solely  to  the  eldest 
sons  of  peers,  without  any  "  privileges  "  in  the  French  sense  of  the 
term.  In  France  the  nobility  was  an  ever  growing  multitude 
which  enjoyed  immense  fiscal  immunities  inherited  by  all  their 
male  descendants,  without  any  political  power,  which  was 
entirely  vested  in  the  King.  The  nobles  served  in  the  army 
and  had  most  of  the  rich  prizes  of  the  Church  ;  but  they  were  so 
excluded  from  the  government  of  the  country  that  almost  all 
the  great  administrative  and  judicial  posts  fell  to  members  of 
the  bourgeoisie — some  of  whom  were  ennobled  and  added  to  the 
crowd  of  privileged  persons.  The  privileges  of  the  French 
nobility  were  mainly  fiscal,  and  their  exemption  from  the  ever 
increasing  burden  of  taxation  caused  it  to  fall  on  the  part  of  the 
nation  least  able  to  bear  it. 

The  foregoing  is  not  a  digression.     It  is  a  necessary  exposi- 
tion of  what  was  at  the  background  of  French  history  in  the 
generations  preceding  the  Revolution.     In  the  third  volume  of 
this  series — The  Eighteenth  Century,  by  M.  Casimir  Stryienski — 
the  author  quotes  Voltaire's  well  known  observations,  made 
during  his  exile  in  our  country,  on  the  advantages  of  the  British 
Constitution.     "  Over  here  a  man  is  not  exempt  from  paying 
certain  taxes  because  he  is  a  noble  or  a  priest.  .  .  .  The  English 
nation  is  the  only  one  in  the  world  which  has  succeeded  in  lunit- 
ing  the  power  of    the   Kings  by  resisting  them.  ...  If    in 
England  there  were  only  one  religion  there  would  be  danger  of 
it  becoming  a  despotism  :    if  there  were  only  two  they  would 
cut  one  another's  throats  ;   but  as  there  are  thirty  they  live  in 
peace  and  happiness."     The  last  proposition  is  somewhat  ex- 
aggerated, though  the  others  are  of  sober  truth.     They  were 
written  at  the  time  when  the  English  Constitution,  based  on  a 
parliamentary  system  which  was  in  the  hands  of  a  governing 
class,  was  perfection  in  the  eyes  of  philosophers  whose  admira- 
tion of  it  made  it  the  envy  of  the  civilized  world.     Such  senti- 
ments it  ceased  to  inspire  when  the  representative  system  became 
democratic  and  imitations  of  it  were  set  up  in  every  corner  of  the 
globe.     At  all  events  Voltaire's  remarks  sum  up  the  condition  of 
things  which  undermined  the  brilliant  surface  of  the   French 
monarchy  in  its  last  days — the  unjust  incidence  of  taxation  ; 
the  unlimited  prerogative  of  the  royal  power  ;    the  monopoly 
of  religion  held  by  one  Church, 
xxiv 


INTRODUCTION 

M.  Stryienski,  the  author  of  this  interesting  study  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  though  not  a  Frenehman  by  origin,  is  so  pro- 
ficient a  master  of  French  history  and  of  the  French  language  that 
three  of  his  works,  including  this  volume,  have  been  "  crowned  " 
by  the  Institute  of  France — a  distinction  of  special  significance 
when  conferred  on  a  foreigner.  Seventy-four  years  of  the 
eighteenth  century  are  covered  by  this  volume — from  the 
accession  of  Louis  XV  in  1715  to  the  meeting  of  the  States 
General  in  1789,  when  the  march  of  the  deputies  through  the 
streets  of  Versailles  to  the  solemn  service  before  the  oncning 
session  was  likened  to  the  funeral  procession  of  the  monarchy. 
M.  Stryienski  does  not  make  excessive  allusion  to  the  dark 
undercurrents  of  national  life  which  were  rushing  along  to  the 
flood  of  revolution  ;  nor  does  he  show  himself  too  sensible  to  the 
charm  of  that  society  which,  wilfully  unconscious  of  the  rising 
flood,  maintained  its  gracious  brilliancy  until  it  was  over- 
whelmed. 

The  history  of  the   eighteenth  century  in  France  affects 
attentive  students  of  the  declining  years  of  the  monarchy  in 
different  ways,  according  to  their  temperament.     By  those  who 
judge  an  epoch  not  by  the  general  prosperity  of  the  people  who 
lived  in  it,  but  by  the  amount  of  happiness  its  products  have 
given  to  later  generations,  the  eighteenth  century,  with  all  its 
abuses,  cannot   be  deplored  without  insincerity.     For  it  was 
those  very  abuses,  arising  out  of  the  extravagances  of  a  luxurious 
and  powerful  Court,  which  left  for  posterity  the  enjoyment  of  a 
profusion  of  works  of  art,  destined  to  give  refined  pleasure  to 
mankind  so  long  as  beauty  can  inspire  the  most  delicate  joys  of 
the  human  senses.     After  the  Renaissance,  when  France  began 
to  take  delight  in  the  creations  of  art  revealed  to  her  by  the 
campaigns  of  her  kings  in  Italy  ;    after  the  Grand  Siecle  under 
the  pompous  yet  noble  authority  of  Louis  XIV,  v/ho  ordained 
a  system,  emanating  from  the  King,  in  which  every  group  of 
workers,  including  artists,  should  have  its  assigned  function  in 
the  State  in   order  to  enhance  the  august  splendours  of   the 
monarchy  ;   after  these  epochs,  the  eighteenth  century,  in  spite 
of  the  continued  influence  of  the  Royal  Academy  founded  by 
Louis  XIV,  is  a  period  of  freedom  and  spontaneity  in  art  which 
represented  all  that  was  most  gracious  in  the  society  soon  to  be 
swept  away.     In  one  branch  of  art  alone,  that  of  painting,  a 
mere  enumeration  of  the  names  of  a  few  of  the  masters  shows 

XXV 


INTRODUCTION 

that  the  irregularities  of  the  Regent  and  of  Louis  XV,  and  the 
light-hearted  frivolity  of  Marie  Antoinette,  before  the  evil  days 
drew  nigh,  were  not  without  compensation.  In  portraiture  there 
were  Rigaud,  Largilliere,  Nattier  and  Drouais ;  among  decora- 
tive painters  Van  Loo,  Boucher  and  Fragonard  ;  among  the 
painters  ol  fetes  galantes,  Watteau,  Pater  and  Lancret ;  among 
painters  of  more  familiar  scenes,  Chardin  and  Greuze.  In  this 
list  there  are,  perhaps,  no  names  of  the  highest  rank  such  as  those 
of  Velasquez  or  of  the  chief  masters  of  the  Italian  Renaissance. 
Yet  the  world  would  be  poorer  without  their  memorials  of  the 
age  in  which  they  lived.  It  is  likely  that  the  present  generation, 
in  more  than  one  democracy,  will  see  public  misery  not  less  acute 
than  that  suffered  by  the  people  in  the  latter  days  of  the  French 
monarchy.  If  it  befalls  us  it  will  be  found  that  its  causes  are 
some  of  those  which  were  at  the  root  of  the  distress  in  France 
in  the  eighteenth  century — ruinous  war,  improvident  states- 
manship, extravagant  finance  in  peace-time.  But  our  posterity 
will  not  be  consoled  with  the  heritage  of  exquisite  works  of  art 
reflecting  a  brilliant  society  which  brought  to  perfection  the  rela= 
tions  of  human  intercourse. 

Without  referring  to  the  other  branches  of  French  art  we 
should  note  that  in  the  eighteenth  century  literature  and  art 
did  not  go  hand  in  hand.  While  the  prevailing  characteristic 
of  French  painting  was  an  unrestrained  love  of  lightness  and 
grace,  the  general  tendency  of  literature  was  profoundly  serious — 
not  solemn  or  austere,  for  there  is  little  solemnity  in  the  fine 
sarcasm  of  the  Leitres  Persanes  or  austerity  in  the  bitter  raillery 
of  the  Inginu.  There  are  exceptions,  such  as  the  comedies  of 
Marivaux,  which  re-echo  the  graceful  trifling  of  the  age ;  but 
the  great  names  in  letters,  which  fill  the  period,  are  Montesquieu, 
Voltaire  and  Rousseau.  Never  before  or  since  have  writers  had 
such  influence  on  the  opinion  and  the  destinies  of  a  nation. 

If  Louis  XV  had  not  been  a  fool  as  well  as  a  profligate,  if  he 
had  been  advised  by  ministers  of  the  intelligence  of  Colbert,  and 
had  followed  their  advice,  the  people,  receiving  a  due  share  of  the 
wealth  of  their  rich  country,  would  have  remained  the  in- 
different and  contented  spectators  and  subjects  of  the  absolute 
government.  But  the  public  misery  was  so  profound  under  the 
ever-growing  burden  of  inequitable  taxation  that  the  philoso- 
phers, continuing  the  studies  of  social  conditions  begun  by  La 
xxvi 


INTRODUCTION 

Bruyere,  Fenelon,  and  others  under  Louis  XIV,  first  created 
a  public  opinion  which  had  not  hitherto  existed  in  France, 
and  then  guided  it  to  demand  full  inquiry  into  the  causes  of 
the  ills  which  oppressed  the  nation.  The  circles  about  the 
Court  did  not  oppose  the  new  ideas.  The  salons  and  boudoirs 
which  inspired  the  graceful  masterpieces  of  artists,  became  the 
meeting-places  of  philosophers,  dilettante  and  serious,  of  both 
sexes,  who  discussed  the  Esprit  des  Lois,  the  Dictionnaire 
Philosopkique  and  the  Contrat  Social,  little  thinking  that  the 
application  of  the  doctrines  contained  in  them  was  about  to 
sweep  out  of  existence  their  brilliant  society. 

Every  school  of  thought  and  intelligence  encouraged  the 
revolt,  from  the  authors  of  the  Encyclopcedia — in  which  the 
whole  range  of  the  sciences  was  expounded  in  a  manner  hostile 
to  the  existing  social  order  and  to  religion — to  Beaumarchais, 
whose  Mariage  de  Figaro,  played  at  the  Frangais  in  1785,  was 
the  final  expression  before  the  Revolution  of  the  hatred  and 
contempt  of  the  commons  for  the  privileged  classes  of  society 
and  for  the  institutions  from  which  the  privileged  alone  derived 
any  profit.  So  it  came  about  that  the  chaos  in  all  departments 
of  the  State,  the  defective  judicial  and  administrative  organiza- 
tion, the  financial  disarray,  the  plunder  of  public  money  and  the 
crushing  incidence  of  taxation  on  the  lower  classes — all  this 
combined  with  military  disasters  abroad,  in  which  France  lost 
her  finest  oversea  possessions,  and  with  religious  persecution  at 
home,  aided  the  philosophic  precursors  of  the  Revolution  to  stir 
up  the  people  to  overthrow  the  power  which  had  made  France 
a  nation.  Even  though  Louis  XVI  had  been  a  wise  man,  he 
came  too  late  to  save  the  absolute  monarchy,  though  he  might 
have  saved  his  own  head. 

Then  came  the  Revolution.  If  any  one  is  capable  of  writing 
a  brief  summary  of  the  ten  years  between  the  election  of  the 
Deputies  of  the  States-General  and  Bonaparte's  coup  d'etat  of 
Brumaire,  1799,  it  is  not  the  author  of  this  Introduction.  M. 
Madelin,  who  contributes  to  this  series  the  section  on  the  Revo- 
lution, apologizes  for  having  attempted  to  do  it  in  a  closely 
printed  volume  of  600  pages  in  the  French  edition.  Every 
year  brings  to  light  a  mass  of  new  documents  on  the  period,  in 
such  abundance  that  Reviews  and  Societies  have  been  founded 
for  the  purpose  of  studying  them.     Moreover,  the  Revolution  is 

xxvii 


INTRODUCTION 

not  a  "  bloc,^''  as  M.  Clemenceau  argued  in  1891  when  he  opposed 
the  representation  of  Sardou's  Thcrmidor  at  the  Fran^ais,  on  the 
ground  that  nothing  should  be  played  at  a  state-subventioned 
theatre  which  held  up  to  reprobation  any  part  of  the  Revolu- 
tion from  which  the  Republic  claimed  its  origin.  In  the  words  of 
the  lamented  Albert  Vandal,  quoted  in  the  Preface  to  this  volume : 
"  The  Revolution,  far  from  being  a  '  bloc  '  is  perhaps  the  most 
complex  phenomenon  that  ever  existed,  a  phenomenon  essentially 
manifold  in  its  causes,  its  elements,  its  movements,  its  con- 
sequences." M.  Madelin  has  done  his  work  well,  as  might  be 
expected  from  a  historian  whose  shorter  monographs  have 
shown  great  promise.  With  this  volume  he  won  the  Grand 
Prix  Gohert  of  the  French  Academy.  That  distinction,  which  is 
the  blue  riband  of  history-prizes,  puts  him  in  the  same  category 
with  Albert  Sorel,  Albert  Vandal  and  Thureau-Dangin,  among 
historians  who  have  died  in  recent  years,  and  with  M.  Henri 
Welschinger  and  M.  Pierre  de  la  Gorce,  who  are  happily  still 
with  us.  The  bibliographies  at  the  end  of  each  chapter  are  a 
testimony  to  M.  Madelin's  thoroughness.  If  any  student  of 
French  history  first  masters  the  text  and  then  sets  to  work  to 
examine  every  authority  named  in  the  bibliographies  he  will 
acquire  a  knowledge  of  the  French  Revolution  such  as  no 
Englishman  ever  possessed.  But  he  must  be  prepared  to  devote 
at  least  ten  years  of  his  life  exclusively  to  the  task. 

M.  Madelin  has  another  volume  nearly  ready  on  the  Consu- 
late and  the  Empire,  the  publication  of  which  has  been  delayed 
by  the  war,  and  it  will  be  added  to  the  English  series.  The 
Revolution  had  not  run  its  course  when  General  Bonaparte 
returned  from  Egypt  to  drive  out  of  power  and  place  the 
lawyers  and  the  other  politicians,  who  had  brought  France 
to  the  brink  of  ruin  and  were  reviving  all  the  extravagant  vices 
of  the  ancient  monarchy  with  none  of  its  dignity  and  traditions. 
The  history  of  the  reconstruction  of  France  by  Napoleon — ■ 
whose  mission  it  was  to  repair  the  disintegrating  mischief  per- 
petrated by  the  so-called  representatives  of  the  people,  before 
the  ambitious  conqueror  had  got  the  better  of  the  statesman 
and  the  organiser,  — is  full  of  lessons  for  the  coming 
generation. 

J.  E.  C.  BODLEY 
December  12,  1915 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

INTRODUCTION  v 

I.  THE  "  SMOKE  AND  GLORY  "  OF  ITALY  : 

CHARLES  VIII,  LOUIS  XII  1 

II.  THE  KING  AND  THE  EMPEROR  43 

,   HI.  THE  COURT  OF  FRANCIS  I  83 

IV.  EXTERNAL  PEACE.     HENRY  II  118 

V.  THE  DRAIVIA  OF  PROTESTANTISM.     FRANCIS  II  155 

VI.  BLOODSTAINED  ANARCHY.     CHARLES  IX  191 

VII.  THE  CATHOLIC  REACTION.     HENRY  III  241 

VIII.  INTERNAL  PEACE.     HENRY  IV  286 

IX.  CIVILIZATION  UNDER  THE  LAST  VALOIS  828 

X.  THE  KINGDOM  OF  FRANCE  AT  THE  CLOSE  OF 

THE  XVI  CENTURY  366 

INDEX  415 


CHAPTER  I 

THE  *' SMOKE  AND  GLORY"  OF  ITALY: 
CHARLES  VIII.    LOUIS  XII. 

Charles  VIII,  1483-1498  :  the  Regency  of  Anne  tie  Beaujeu  ; 
States-General  of  1484  ;  Rebellion  of  the  Duke  of  Orleans  and  the 
Mad  War  ;  Battle  of  Saint -Aub in  du  Cormier  ;  Treaty  of  Sable, 
1488.  Marriage  of  Charles  VIII  and  Anne  of  Brittany,  1491. 
Charles  VIII's  personal  government  :  charaeters  of  Charles  VIII 
and  Anne  of  Brittany.  The  Italian  War  :  the  rights  over  Naples  ; 
the  crossing  of  Italy,  1494  ;  entry  into  Naples,  1495  ;  the  retreat, 
Battle  of  Fornovo,  1495.  Deathof  Charles  VIII,  1498.  Louis  XII, 
1498-1515  :  Cardinal  Georges  d'Amboise  ;  marriage  of  the  King 
with  Anne  of  Brittany,  1499.  Conquest  of  the  State  of  Milan,  1500, 
and  of  Naples,  1501.  Conflict  with  Spain,  the  defeats  of  Seminara 
and  Cerignola,  evacuation  of  Naples.  The  trial  of  Marshal  de  Gie, 
1504.  The  League  of  Cambray  against  Venice,  1508  ;  the  victory 
of  Agnadello,  1509.  Pope  Julius  II  and  the  Holy  Alliance  against 
Louis  XII,  1511  :  Battle  of  Ravenna,  1512;  evacuation  of  Italy. 
Louis  XII  at  Blois  :  death  of  Anne  of  Brittany,  1514,  and  of 
Louis  XII,  1515. 

WHEN,  on  August  30,  1483,  the  old  King,  Louis  XI, 
passed  away  in  the  solitude  of  the  Chateau  du 
Plessis,  near  Tours,  the  prince,  his  son,  who 
succeeded  him  under  the  title  of  Charles  VIII,  was  a  child 
of  thirteen,  and  a  puny,  delicate  boy  into  the  bargain. 
Charles  VIII,  His  father,  anxious  about  his  health,  had  arranged 
1483-1498.  for  him  to  be  brought  up  at  Amboise,  a  place 
beautifully  situated  on  the  banks  of  the  Loire  within 
a  stone's  throw  of  the  forest.  Here  he  had  confided  him 
to  the  care  of  Jean  Bourr^,  an  accountant,  and  Etienne 
de  Vesc,  a  sheriff.*   The  child  had  been  a  difficult  one  to  rear  ; 

*  Sheriff  is  perhaps  the  nearest  English  equivalent  for  the  French  bailli, 
a  term  used  in  the  north  of  France,  whilst  a  similar  official  in  the  south 
was  called  sintchal. — [Tr.] 

A  1 


CENTURY    OF   THE    RENAISSANCE 

he  had  a  large  head  and  a  feeble  body,  and  his  guardians  had 
humoured  his  health  in  every  way  and  taught  him  nothing. 
They  had  merely  encouraged  him  to  take  physical  exercise — 
hunting  above  all — in  order  to  develop  his  body.  The  King, 
though  inspired  by  no  very  great  aflfection  for  his  son — for  there 
were  but  few  he  loved — was  nevertheless  full  of  solicitude  on 
his  behalf.  He  used  to  write  frequently  to  Jean  Bourre  to 
ask  for  news  and  to  give  advice.  The  child's  chief  amusement 
consisted  in  reading  the  Grandes  Chroniques  de  France  and 
romances  of  chivalry. 

The  question  as  to  who  should  govern  the  kingdom  when 
he  was  dead  was  one  which  had  not  escaped  Louis  XI.  Queen 
Regency  of  Charlotte,  his  wife,  he  passed  over  as  incom- 
Anne  de  petent,  and  rested  all  his  hopes  upon  his  daughter 

Beaujeu.  Anne.     It  is  true  she  was  only  twenty-two,  but 

"  she  was  a  proud  woman  and  as  shrewd  as  any,  the  very 
image  in  every  way  of  King  Louis,  her  father,"  says  Brantome, 
who  had  heard  a  great  deal  about  her  from  his  grand- 
mother. Louis  XI  had  married  Anne  when  she  was  quite 
young  to  Pierre  de  Beaujeu,  a  wealthy  man  twenty-one  years 
her  senior.  He  was  a  younger  son  of  the  House  of  Bourbon, 
rich  in  lands,  influential,  and  of  royal  birth.  Louis  had  grown 
fond  of  this  son-in-law,  who  was  a  good,  quiet  man,  "sweet- 
tempered  and  humble,"  and  had  gradually  allowed  him  to 
help  him  in  the  government,  showing  him  every  mark  of  con- 
fidence and  initiating  him  into  all  his  business.  When  he  felt 
that  death  was  approaching,  Louis  XI  went  to  Amboise  on 
purpose  to  tell  his  son,  the  Dauphin,  that  when  he  was  no  more 
he  must  obey  Pierre  de  Beaujeu,  and  on  his  death-bed  he  ex- 
plained to  the  latter  that  he  left  the  new  King  under  his  guar- 
dianship. Whereupon  he  breathed  his  last  without  leaving 
any  other  will. 

Pierre  de  Beaujeu  found  himself  in  a  difficult  situation. 
His  position  was  ill-defined.  He  was  not  regent,  as  in  another 
year  the  little  prince,  Charles  VIII,  would  be  fourteen,  an  age  at 
which,  in  accordance  with  tradition,  he  would  attain  his  majority. 
Moreover,  his  guardianship  had  only  been  conferred  upon  him 
by  the  late  King  by  word  of  mouth,  unratified  by  any  authentic 
act.  He  felt  extremely  uneasy.  But  he  had  an  intelligent 
2 


"SMOKE    AND    GLORY"    OF    ITALY 

and  imperious  woman  at  his  side.  Contemporary  writers  are 
not  very  friendly  towards  Anne  de  Beaujeu.  They  describe 
her  as  "  full  of  dissimulation  and  a  great  hypocrite,"  "  shrewd  " 
it  is  true,  but  "  very  vindictive,  and  a  regular  little  mischief- 
maker."  The  Venetian  ambassador  adds  that  she  was  ex- 
tremely miserly,  "  that  she  would  do  anything  for  money  and 
regarded  the  glory  of  God  as  little  as  the  honour  of  the  Crown." 
However  that  may  be,  she  was  essentially  a  "  masterful  woman  " 
and  led  her  husband  with  great  firmness  and  decision. 

The  difficulties  of  the  situation  were  such  as  to  cause  con- 
siderable anxiety.  Louis  XI's  government  had  been  so  harsh 
Difficulties  towards  all  concerned  that  reactionary  outbursts 
of  Govern-  were  to  be  feared.  In  order  to  forestall  these, 
ment.  the   Beaujeus   hastened   to   sacrifice   the   officials 

who  had  been  most  deeply  compromised  in  the  late  King's 
service.  Olivier  le  Daim  was  sentenced  to  be  hanged. 
They  cancelled  taxes  that  were  overdue,  lowered  the  taille, 
reduced  the  army,  opened  the  prisons,  and  gave  back  goods 
that  had  been  confiscated.  These  measures  apparently  met 
with  success. 

The  most  pressing  problem,  however,  was  connected  with 
the  nobility.  There  was  a  certain  number  of  persons  who 
were  redoubtable  on  account  of  their  wealth,  power,  and  autho- 
rity, and  whose  discontent  would  entail  the  worst  possible 
consequences.  First  and  foremost  among  these  were :  the  heir 
presumptive  to  the  throne  after  the  weakling  Charles  VIII, 
a  young  prince  of  twenty-one,  frivolous,  impetuous,  and  rest- 
less, "  with  a  small  head  in  which  there  was  not  room  for  many 
brains,"  a  second  cousin,  Louis,  Duke  of  Orleans,  grandson  of 
a  brother  of  Charles  VI ;  then  the  eldest  Beaujeu,  the  Duke 
of  Bourbon  ;  Rene,  Duke  of  Lorraine ;  Francis  II,  Duke  of 
Brittany ;  Alain  dAlbret,  a  southern  nobleman  ;  Dunois, 
the  son  of  the  famous  Orleans  bastard  of  the  same  name,  who 
afterwards  helped  his  great  friend,  the  Duke  of  Orleans,  and 
organized  his  rebellions ;  and  many  others.  How  would  all 
these  people  regard  or  acquiesce  in  the  exceptional  position 
enjoyed  by  the  Beaujeus  ? 

In  order  to  conciliate  them  the  Beaujeus  tried  heaping 
favours  on  their  heads.     Pierre  and  Anne  formed  a  council  of 

3 


CENTURY    OF   THE    RENAISSANCE 

twelve  to  carry  on  the  government,  at  the  head  of  which  they 
placed  the  Duke  of  Orleans,  whom  they  also  made  Governor 
of  rile  de  France,  Champagne  and  la  Brie.  They  appointed 
the  Duke  of  Bourbon  Constable,  Lieutenant-General  to  the 
King  and  Governor  of  Languedoc,  and  they  made  Dunois 
Governor  of  Dauphiny.  Their  plan  proved  abortive,  for  they 
learned  that  the  Duke  of  Orleans  regarded  their  dominant 
position  as  intolerable  and  had  made  up  his  mind  to  demand 
their  downfall.  Thereupon  they  decided  to  summon  the  States- 
General  in  order  that  their  powers  might  be  confirmed  by  the 
representatives  of  the  nation. 

In  doing  this  they  set  to  work  very  cleverly.  Wherever 
they  could  they  nominated  their  own  candidates.  They  decreed 
that  members  should  be  indiscriminately  elected  by  the  three 
estates  of  the  realm,  the  clergy,  the  nobility  and  the  people, 
instead  of  having  separate  members  for  each  order,  and  they 
issued  a  dazzling  programme  of  which  the  essential  feature  was 
to  be  a  reduction  of  taxes. 

On  January  15,  1484,  the  States-General  solemnly  assembled 
at  Tours,  in  the  great  hall  of  the  Archbishop's  palace.  It  was 
States-General  chiefly  composed  of  honest  but  somewhat  timid 
ol  1484.  individuals  who  were  uncertain  as  to  their  duties 

and  not  very  sure  of  their  rights,  but  who  at  all  events 
had  plenty  to  say.  They  made  contradictory  statements 
and  few  among  them  were  of  the  same  opinion.  The 
Duke  of  Orleans  had  his  followers,  and  Anne  had  her 
partisans  to  whom  she  gave  instructions.  A  struggle  at 
once  ensued.  The  Duke's  friends  asserted  that  from  time 
immemorial  the  heir  presumptive  to  the  throne  had  been  the 
guardian  of  a  king  who  was  still  a  minor.  The  other  side  retorted 
that  as  Charles  VIII  would  attain  his  majority  in  a  few  weeks 
it  was  useless  to  discuss  the  matter.  The  States  admitted  the 
truth  of  this.  They  thereupon  debated  the  question  of  the  com- 
position of  the  King's  council,  or  rather  the  question  as  to  who 
should  nominate  the  members  of  the  council.  The  nobles, 
with  the  Duke  of  Orleans  at  their  head,  demanded  this  right. 
Anne  de  Beaujeu  had  the  States  informed  that  she  proposed 
granting  this  privilege  to  the  Assembly.  The  States  refused. 
Each  member  gave  expression  to  his  own  opinion  and  some 
4 


"SMOKE  AND  GLORY"  OF  ITALY 

confusion  followed.  Thereupon  Philippe  Pot,  Sire  de  la 
Roche,  one  of  the  members  for  Burgundy,  who  was  one  of 
Anne's  supporters,  and  the  King's  chamberlain  and  private 
tutor,  made  a  long  speech.  He  enunciated  some  bold  theories, 
asserting  that  if  authority  were  put  in  the  hands  of  princes, 
anarchy  would  be  the  result.  He  gave  utterance  to  ideas 
which  have  a  very  modern  ring  :  "  The  State  belongs  to  the 
people  ;  "  "in  the  beginning  the  sovereign  people  created 
kings  ;  "  "  sovereignty  cannot  belong  to  a  prince  who  only 
exists  by  the  will  of  the  people."  He  maintained  with  great 
eloquence  that  as  the  Assembly  was  superior  to  the  King,  it 
had  only  to  issue  its  orders.  His  audience  listened  attentively 
and  applauded  him,  but  did  not  dare  to  carry  his  principles 
into  practice.  In  the  end  they  decided  to  entrust  themselves 
"  to  the  good  pleasure  of  the  King  and  the  said  lords  and  princes 
and  the  council  "  ;  which  seemingly  amounted  to  answering 
one  question  by  another,  but  in  reality  left  matters  exactly 
where  they  stood.  The  Assembly  added  that  they  desired 
to  be  convoked  every  other  year.  The  next  day  they 
found  the  hall  dismantled,  the  hangings  taken  down  and 
the  benches  removed.  They  understood  and  took  their 
departure.  Pierre  and  Anne  de  Beaujeu  remained  masters 
of  the  situation. 

The  Duke  of  Orleans  was  extremely  angry  and  entertained 
the  extraordinary  notion  of  kidnapping  Charles  VIII.  Un- 
fortunately for  his  designs  Anne  was  warned  in  time  and 
hastened  to  place  the  young  King  in  safety  behind  the  solid 
walls  of  Montargis.  Upon  being  found  out,  the  Duke  of  Orleans 
cast  aside  his  mask.  He  went  to  Brittany,  a  semi-independent 
grand-duchy  of  France,  and  invited  its  Duke,  Francis  II,  who 
detested  the  Beaujeu  government,  to  join  with  him  in  driving 
out  Anne.  He  also  found  supporters  among  the  nobility — 
the  Count  of  Angouleme,  the  Duke  of  Alengon  and  Dunois. 
Anne,  for  her  part,  was  energetic  and  resolute.  She  mustered 
The  her    troops,    stripped     Orleans     and    Dunois     of 

"  Mad  War."  their  offices  and  functions,  and  marched  boldly 
against  them  in  the  direction  of  ;fivreux  and  Verneuil, 
where  they  were  encamped.  Orleans  took  flight.  Brittany 
was  not  moving  a  fmger  to  help  him.      He  capitulated,  was 

5 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

granted  pardon  and  resumed  his  scat  on  the  council.  Thus 
ended  the  first  act  of  what  was  known  as  the  "  Mad  War." 

The  second  was  not  slow  to  follow  and  its  result  was  no  less 
disastrous.  Hunted,  surrounded,  and  blockaded  at  Beaugency, 
the  Duke  of  Orleans  and  Dunois  were  obliged  to  capitulate. 
This  time  Dunois  was  exiled  to  Piedmont. 

The  third  and  final  act  followed  in  1486.  Dunois,  who 
had  returned  from  exile,  had  taken  up  the  negotiations  with 
Brittany  on  behalf  of  his  friend,  and  had  extended  them  to 
Lorraine.  He  won  over  the  King  of  Navarre  to  his  cause,  as 
well  as  the  Sire  d'Albret  and  the  Counts  of  Angouleme,  Nevers, 
and  Comminges.  With  their  help  he  formed  a  league  and 
matters  began  to  assume  a  serious  aspect.  Anne  de  Beaujeu 
acted  with  her  usual  decision.  The  first  step  to  take  was  to 
rout  her  enemies  in  the  south  before  the  rest  could  be  rallied. 
She  marched  against  them  and  broke  their  lines  everywhere. 
DAngouleme,  dAlbret,  and  Comminges,  taken  unawares  and 
put  to  confusion,  laid  down  their  arms.  She  thereupon  sent 
three  bodies  of  troops  against  Brittany  under  the  command 
of  the  Comte  de  Montpensier,  the  Comte  de  Saint-Andre  and 
Louis  de  Tremoille,  a  clever  young  general  of  twenty-seven, 
full  of  promise.  The  first  campaign,  which  was  fought  in 
1487,  was  unsuccessful.  In  the  following  year  La  Tremoille 
was  made  commander-in-chief  over  16,000  men.  He  captured 
Ancenis  and  Fougeres,  and  at  Saint-Aubin  du  Cormier  came 
into  contact  with  the  Duke  of  Orleans,  who  was  lying  in 
wait  for  him  with  6000  foot,  2400  horse,  and  a  number  of 
cannon.  A  sharp  fight  took  place.  Orleans  was  beaten 
and  made  prisoner.  By  this  time,  however,  Anne  was  tired 
of  pardoning  him.  She  had  her  dangerous  cousin  imprisoned 
in  the  depths  of  a  strong  tower  at  Bourges,  where,  at  last 
reduced  to  subjection,  he  lay  for  three  years  lamenting  his 
fate. 

The  Duke  of  Brittany  then  sued  for  peace.  This  was 
granted  him  at  Sable  on  harsh  and  humiliating  terms.  His 
heir  was  a  daughter,  the  celebrated  Anne  of  Brittany.  By 
the  Peace  of  Sable,  Francis  II  was  bound  not  to  give  her  in 
marriage  without  permission  from  the  King  of  France,  and  he 
was  also  forced  to  pay  all  the  expenses  of  the  war.  Francis  II 
6 


"SMOKE  AND  GLORY"  OF  ITALY 

was  so  deeply  aiTected  that  he  died.  The  question  which 
now  assumed  important  proportions  was  the  marriage  of  his 
daughter. 

The  aspirants  to  her  hand  were  both  numerous  and  for- 
midable. First  and  foremost  were  foreigners,  and,  among 
Marriage  o£  these,  the  Archduke  Maximilian  of  Austria,  the 
Charles  VIII.  son  of  the  Emperor  Frederick  III.  Maximilian's 
first  wife  had  been  Mary  of  Burgundy,  a  daughter  of  Charles  the 
Bold.  She  had  died  leaving  him  with  two  children,  one  of 
them  a  girl  Margaret,  who  had  been  betrothed  to  Charles  VIII 
and  even  sent  to  the  French  Court.  Her  father  sighed  after 
the  brilliant  heritage  of  Charles  the  Bold,  upon  part  of  which 
Louis  XI  had  laid  hands.  If  he  married  Anne  of  Brittany,  in 
spite  of  the  difference  of  age  between  them,  he  would  be  master 
of  Brittany  and  hold  France  in  a  vice.  The  other  suitors 
were  Alain  dAlbret ;  the  Duke  of  Buckingham,  whose  suit 
was  backed  by  the  King  of  England ;  Don  Juan,  the  heir 
to  the  thrones  of  Aragon  and  Castille ;  and  several  others.  In 
the  face  of  the  dangers  which  any  one  of  these  combinations 
alTorded,  Anne  de  Beaujeu  resolutely  decided  to  arrange  a 
marriage  between  the  precious  heiress  and  Charles  VIII,  an 
arrangement  which  would  solve  all  difficulties.  Unfortunately 
the  news  suddenly  reached  her  that  Anne  of  Brittany  was 
about  to  marry  Maximilian.  Those  who  surrounded  the  person 
of  the  young  princess  had  arranged  this  in  accordance  with 
the  dying  wishes  of  her  father.  The  French  Court  was  furious. 
An  energetic  protest  was  drawn  up  against  this  violation  of 
the  Treaty  of  Sable,  and  between  30,000  and  40,000  men  were 
dispatched  to  ask  the  Duchess  of  Brittany  to  give  up  Maxi- 
mihan  and  accept  the  hand  of  Charles  VIII.  The  French 
troops  laid  siege  to  Nantes  and  the  Duchess  was  faced  by  the 
alternative  of  either  marrying  the  Archduke  and  being  driven 
out  of  Brittany,  or  accepting  the  King  of  France  and  retaining 
her  lands.  Anne  had  no  choice.  She  gave  way  and  the 
contract  of  marriage  was  signed  on  December  13,  1491,  in 
the  great  hall  of  Langeais  castle.  The  wedding  followed, 
celebrated  with  great  pomp,  and  the  new  queen  was  crowned 
at  Saint-Denis. 

Charles  VIII  was  now  twenty-one  and  was  showing  signs 

7 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

of  wishing  to  govern  the  kingdom  himself.  Anne  of  Brittany 
was  seventeen  and  seemed  a  self-willed  young  lady  whom  it 
would  not  be  easy  to  manage.  The  Beaujeus  realized  that  their 
public  part  was  at  an  end.  They  retired  gradually,  and  little 
by  little  relinquished  their  hold  on  the  reins  of  government. 
The  Duke  of  Bourbon,  the  head  of  their  family,  had  just  died 
without  issue,  leaving  them  vast  possessions.  They  withdrew 
into  the  background.  They  had,  on  the  whole,  ruled  the  kingdom 
with  firmness  and  decision,  solved  difficulties  skilfully,  and  come 
safely  out  of  perilous  situations.  Louis  XI  had  done  well  in 
making  them  the  guardians  of  his  son. 

The  young  King  who  now  took  upon  himself  the  govern- 
ment of  his  kingdom  was  far  from  being  a  brilliant  youth.    He 
Character  of       was  short  and  terribly  thin,   with  an  enormous 
Charles  VIII.      head.     The  portrait  of  him  found  on  PoUajuolo's 
curious  terra-cotta  in  the  museum  at  Florence  and  a  minia- 
ture   in    a   manuscript    in   the  Bibliotheque    Nationale,    both 
depict   him  with   large   goggle   eyes,  a   huge  prominent   nose, 
a    vulgar,  thick-lipped   mouth    with    a    loose    underlip,    and 
a    short    chin    upon   which    sprouted    a    sparse    red    beard. 
He    was    certainly  ugly.     Zachariah  Contarini,  the  Venetian, 
declared     that     he      was     "  misshapen."       His     appearance 
stamped    him    as    a    mediocre,  ill-balanced    individual.     Phy- 
sically he  was  a  degenerate.     He  indulged  in  strange  tastes, 
soaking  himself  with  insufferably  pungent  perfumes  and  loading 
his  fingers  with  numberless  rings.       He  was  either  silent  or 
spoke  but  rarely.     He  was  a  prey  to  nervous,  twitching  move- 
ments to  which  his  jerky  signature  bears  witness.     He  was, 
in    short,    an    altogether    misbegotten    creature.     His    letters, 
which  have  been  published,  have  been  cited  as  proofs  of  his 
intelligence.     But  these  letters  were  the  work  of  secretaries. 
Stress  has  been  laid  upon  the  manner  in  which  he  entered  into 
personal   negotiations   with  foreign   ambassadors.     These   am- 
bassadors,  however,  declare  that   he  saw  no  one  himself  but 
referred   everybody   to   some   member   of   his    council.     Delia 
Casa,  the  Florentine,  calls  him  "  a  fool,  guided  by  the  first 
comer  "  ;  Contarini  adds,  "  In  body  as  in  spirit  he  is  of  little 
worth."     There   are,   indeed,   many  facts  which  point  to  his 
being  but  a  poor  specimen  of  royalty. 
8 


"SMOKE    AND    GLORY"    OF    ITALY 

His  wife,  the  little  Duchess  of  Brittany,  had  a  very  dilTerent 
personality,  and  was  greatly  his  superior,  though  she,  too, 
Character  of  was  not  beautiful.  She  was  small,  fiat-chested 
Anne  of  and  thin,  and  was  even  lame  in  one  leg,  an  infirmity 

Brittany.  she  managed  to  hide  by  means  of  pattens.     Her 

face   was   rather  long  and  colourless,  with  a  short  nose,  and 
too     large     a    mouth.      But,    as    Brantome    says,    she     was 
"  a     shrewd     Brittany     woman,"     alert,     fiendishly     clever, 
prudent,  and  above  all,  self-willed  to  the  point  of  obstinacy  ; 
when    she    wanted    a    thing,   she    wanted   it  with  her  whole 
heart  and  soul.      She    was    well    educated  and    knew    Greek 
and  Latin,  and  she  prided  herself  upon  patronizing  poets  and 
granting    them    pensions.     She    possessed    artistic    tastes    and 
had  quantities  of  wrought  gold  and  silver  ornaments  made  for 
her,  as  well  as  tapestries  and  pictures.     She  gave  commissions 
for  manuscripts  adorned  with  miniatures,  which  rank  among 
the  most  beautiful  creations  of  their  kind  that  France  possesses. 
She  also  had  quantities  of  chased  gold  and  silver  plate,  trinkets 
and  stuffs,  for  her  domain  of  Brittany  brought  her  vast  wealth. 
She  and  Catherine  de'  Medici  were  the  richest  of  all  the  Queens 
of  France.     Anne  had  two  entirely  different  sides  to  her  nature. 
She    could    be    a    simple    little    native    of    Brittany,    dressed 
for     ordinary    occasions    in    a    modest    black    costume,    her 
head   covered   with  the   hood    characteristic   of   her    country, 
also  black,  with  a  white  coif  on  the  top,  a  woman  with  an  eye 
to  the  main  chance,  severe,  and  even  miserly.     But  she  could 
also  be  a  proud  princess,  who  kept  no  count  of  her  fine  dresses 
in  cloth  of  gold  lined  Math  ermine,  and    who    on  feast  days 
covered  her  person  with  glistening  jewels  and  distributed  her 
largesse   sumptuously   both  to   Church    and   poor.      Through- 
out  her  life  she  remained   a  true   Brittany  woman  at    heart. 
Slie  was  worshipped  in  her  Duchy   where    she    always  came 
open-handed.      At  Amboise  she  had  a  permanent   bodyguard 
of   a  hundred  Breton   nobles,  and   a  band   of  native   singers 
and  musicians  who  soothed  her  spirit  with  songs  of  her  own 
land.     As  she  was  richer  than  Charles  VIII  and  had  done  him 
the  honour  of  embellishing  Amboise  with  beautiful  hangings. 
Oriental  carpets,  and  artistic  furniture,  she  insisted  upon  living 
a  fairly  independent  life.     She  was  surrounded  by  a  brilliant 

9 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

court  and  had  thirty  or  forty  maids-of-honour.  Though  she 
was  very  jealous  she  did  not  interfere  in  her  husband's  affairs, 
but  allowed  him  to  rule  the  kingdom  as  he  pleased. 

Charles  carried  on  his  government  in  a  peculiar  fashion. 
This  boy  of  twenty-one  who,  according  to  Comines,  "  was 
Charles  VIII's  ^  mere  fledgling,"  indulged  in  an  extraordinary 
dreams  of  dream  of   conquest.     It   was   his   great   wish  to 

conquest.  march  on  Constantinople,   drive  out  the  infidel 

Turk,  and  place  upon  his  own  head  the  imperial  crown  of 
Constantine.  Undertaken  by  a  powerful  prince  the  scheme 
would  have  been  an  audacious  one  ;  but  conceived  as  it 
was  by  a  sick  boy  it  was  merely  the  figment  of  a  dis- 
ordered imagination.  However,  there  was  one  tangible  fact 
which  gave  some  substance  to  the  dream.  The  right  of  the 
Kings  of  France  to  lay  claim  to  the  throne  of  Naples  was 
destined  to  put  Charles  VIII  on  the  high  road  to  Greece  and 
Constantinople. 

Two  hundred  years  had  gone  by  since  a  brother  of  St.  Louis, 
Charles,  Count  of  Anjou  and  Provence,  had  set  forth  at  his 
own  risk  and  peril  to  carve  out  a  kingdom  for  himself  in  the 
south  of  Italy.  His  success  was  short-lived.  In  1282  the  Sicilians 
revolted,  massacres  took  place,  and  Spanish  princes  of  the 
House  of  Aragon  came  over,  drove  out  the  Angevins,  and  for 
two  hundred  years  remained  undisturbed  masters  of  Naples.  But 
the  Counts  of  Anjou  and  Provence  on  their  return  to  France 
had  jealously  preserved  their  pretensions  to  the  kingdom  they 
had  once  held.  In  1420,  Alfonso  V,  another  prince  of  Aragon, 
crossed  the  sea  and  seized  the  ill-fated  kingdom,  because  its 
Queen,  Juana  II,  who  had  no  children,  had  adopted  Rene  of 
Anjou,  an  Angevin  prince.  On  July  10,  1480,  Rene  of  Anjou, 
the  last  Count  of  Anjou  and  Provence  and  pseudo-king  of 
Naples,  surnamed  "  good  King  Rene "  died,  leaving  no 
direct  heir.  In  his  will  he  bequeathed  Anjou  to  the  King  of 
France,  the  counties  of  Maine  and  Provence  and  the  famous 
rights  to  Naples  to  a  nephew,  Charles,  Comte  du  Maine,  on 
condition  that  the  latter  at  his  death  should  leave  his  entire 
heritage  to  the  King  of  France.  Charles  du  Maine  died  on 
December  11,  1481,  and  Louis  XI  thus  found  himself  possessed 
of  all  the  lands  and  rights  of  the  House  of  Anjou.  Louis  XI 
10 


*SMOKE    AND    GLORY"    OF    ITALY 

was  a  practical  man.  He  seized  all  the  territory  offered  him  ; 
but  in  the  shadowy  rights  connected  with  a  distant  land,  which 
he  would  need  men  and  money  to  win,  he  took  not  the  smallest 
interest.  His  daughter,  Anne  de  Beaujeu,  who  inherited  his 
ideas,  held  these  rights  of  so  little  account  that  she  was  on  the 
point  of  handing  them  over  to  Rene  II,  Duke  of  Lorraine,  a 
relative  of  the  Angevins.  A  stray  chance,  however,  was  destined 
to  revive  their  memory  in  the  breast  of  the  romantic  successor 
of  the  most  matter-of-fact  and  astute  of  mediaeval  monarchs. 
Italy  at  this  time  consisted  of  a  mosaic  of  independent 
states  of  varying  sizes,  each  one  jealous  of  its  neighbour  and 
constantly  at  war  one  with  the  other.  Those  amongst  them 
who  felt  themselves  too  weak,  would  call  in  foreign  Powers  to 
help  them,  such  as  the  Emperor  of  Germany,  the  King  of  Spain 
and  the  King  of  France.  The  King  of  Spain  was  far  away ; 
the  Emperor  of  Germany,  trammelled  by  the  semi-federated 
constitution  of  the  Holy  Roman  Empire,  had  his  hands  tied. 
The  King  of  France  alone  was  in  a  position  to  help.  Louis  XI 
had  frequently  been  asked  to  act  as  mediator,  and  France  had 
thus  entered  into  relations  with  Italy.  At  this  juncture  the 
reigning  Duke  of  Milan  was  Gian  Galeazzo  Maria  Sforza,  a 
young  man  of  somewhat  delicate  health,  who  had  succeeded 
his  father  under  the  guardianship  of  his  mother.  Bona  of  Savoy, 
a  sister  of  Louis  XI's  wife,  Charlotte,  and  therefore  aunt  to 
Charles  VIII.  Bona  was  a  woman  of  scant  intelligence  "  with 
but  little  sense."  Her  brother-in-law,  Ludovico  Sforza,  surnamed 
Ludovico  the  Moor  on  account  of  his  dark  complexion,  seized 

Sforza.  the  reigns  of  government  and  made  up  his  mind  to 

usurp  the  throne  of  his  nephew.  The  existing  portraits  of 
Ludovico  the  Moor  and  especially  the  picture  by  Zcnale 
in  the  Brera  Museum  at  Milan,  do  not  give  us  a  very 
engaging  idea  of  this  man.  They  depict  him  with 
regular  features,  straight  unflinching  gaze  and  the  close-shut 
thin  lips  of  a  man  whose  thoughts  are  veiled.  His  face  was 
inscrutable  and  untrustworthy,  with  a  disingenuous  glance, 
whilst  his  head  was  that  of  a  shady  attorney,  deficient  in  courage 
and  in  scruple,  if  not  in  intelligence,  with  feelings  entirely 
self-centred  or  base.  The  plan  he  had  conceived  was  not 
easy  to  carry  out.     The  chief  obstacles  in  his  path  were  the 

11 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

claims  of  Charles  VIII,  the  cousin  of  the  Duke  whom  he  wished 
to  dethrone,  and  of  the  latter's  father-in-law,  Alfonso  of  Cala- 
bria, the  eldest  son  of  King  Ferrante  of  Naples.  Ludovico 
could  think  of  no  better  plan  for  ridding  himself  of  these  two  foes 
than  that  of  setting  them  at  war  with  each  other. 

He  forthwith  dispatched  ambassadors  to  Amboise  with 
instructions  to  bribe  Charles  VIII 's  most  powerful  counsellors 
and  imbue  the  King  of  France  with  the  desire  of  making  good 
his  rights  over  Naples.  Amongst  these  counsellors  the  most 
important  were  fitienne  de  Vesc,  the  ex-sheriff  of  Meaux,  who 
had  been  made  sheriff  of  Beaucaire  and  whose  influence  was  all 
powerful  with  the  King ;  a  priest  named  Guillaume  Bri9onnet, 
whom  Charles  VIII  had  raised  to  the  bishopric  of  Saint  Malo, 
and  Jean  de  Baudricourt,  Marshal  d'Esquerdes.  The  two  first 
mentioned  were  the  real  masters.  They  accepted  large  sums 
from  Ludovico,  as  is  conclusively  proved  by  documents  found 
in  the  archives  of  Milan.  According  to  Comines  they  were 
also  dazzled  by  seductive  hopes.  Jfitienne  de  Vesc  was  told 
that  in  Italy  he  would  win  territories  and  titles  and  Bri^onnet 
was  promised  a  cardinal's  hat.  The  four  men  were  hand 
in  glove.  !fitienne  de  Vesc  was  the  most  determined  of 
them  all,  and  Charles  VIII,  for  his  part,  entered  stoutly  upon 
the  adventure.  Certain  Neapolitan  nobles,  who  had  fled  their 
country  on  account  of  the  brutal  behaviour  of  their  King, 
urged  him  to  undertake  the  expedition.  King  Ferrante  of 
Naples,  a  big  man  with  a  fat,  bestial  face,  and  hard  pitiless 
expression,  had  carried  on  his  government  entirely  by  violence  ; 
he  had  massacred,  betrayed,  and  imprisoned  right  and  left, 
fitienne  de  Vesc  had  learned  treatises  drawn  up,  proving  the 
legality  of  the  French  King's  rights  over  Naples  and  Sicily, 
and  preparations  were  made  forthwith. 

When  the  news  of  this  enterprise  was  made  known,  it  was 
regarded  as  ridiculous  by  every  one  in  France.  Not  a  single 
Charles  VIII  voice  was  raised  in  its  favour  and  the  opposition 
decides  to  to  it  became  exceedingly  active      But  Charles  VIII 

invade  Italy.  stood  his  ground.  Ludovico  the  Moor  was 
delighted  and  swore  that  Charles  and  all  his  council 
together  "did  not  make  up  half  a  wise  man  between  them;" 
but  when  Charles  came  down  into  Italy,  he  added,  "  It 
12 


"SMOKE    AND    GLORY"    OF    ITALY 

is  I  who  brought  him  here,  and  I  shall  lead  him  yet  further 
afield  !  "  However  it  was  not  long  before  he  himself  met  with 
grave  difficulties. 

A  commission,  consisting  of  the  King's  four  counsellors 
and  Comines,  was  nominated  to  prepare  for  the  "enterprise  "  as 
it  was  called.  They  decided  that  500,000  to  600,000  ducats  must 
be  set  aside,  that  the  people  must  be  taxed  to  the  extent  of 
800,000  ducats,  that  24  ships,  12  galleons  and  50  galleys  must 
be  chartered  at  Genoa  and  elsewhere,  for  the  transport  of  the 
main  body  of  the  army,  consisting  of  10,400  men,  and  that  a 
force  of  41,900  must  be  levied.  Steps  were  immediately  taken 
to  raise  these  numbers 

The  expedition  also  required  the  help  of  diplomacy.  An 
envoy.  Perron  de  Baschi,  was  dispatched  to  Italy  to  see  how 
the  land  lay.  The  Italians  were  alarmed.  The  advent  of 
this  foreign  King  and  his  army  boded  but  little  good  in  their 
eyes.  Ludovico  the  Moor  began  to  grow  uneasy.  A  treaty 
of  alliance  was  made  between  France  and  the  Duke  of  Milan, 
in  which  Ludovico  succeeded  in  having  his  name  inserted. 
The  Republic  of  Venice  sent  evasive  answers.  Piero  de'  Medici 
gave  expression  to  vague  protestations  of  good  will  from  Florence. 
In  Rome,  Pope  Alexander  VI  confined  himself  to  generalities. 
Ferrante,  for  his  part,  was  getting  under  arms.  But  at  all 
events  the  neutrality  of  the  various  States  had  been  secured. 

Lastly,  before  leaving  France,  Charles  VIII  made  all  the 
arrangements  necessary  for  his  absence.  He  confided  the 
Treaties  with  regency  to  Pierre  de  Bourbon  and  handed  over 
England,  the  various  departments  of  government  to  trust- 

Spain,  and  worthy  individuals.  With  the  view  of  preventing 
Austria.  ^he  Kings  of  England  and  Spain,  or  Maximilian 

of  Austria,  from  seizing  upon  some  pretext  to  profit  by 
his  absence  in  order  to  attack  his  frontiers,  he  made  treaties 
with  them.  For  the  sum  of  745,000  golden  crowns  the 
King  of  England  bound  himself  by  the  Treaty  of  Etaples  of 
November  3,  1492,  not  to  interfere.  An  old  story  was 
revived  of  a  loan  of  300,000  golden  crowns  made  by  France 
to  Aragon  as  a  surety  for  which  France  had  occupied  Cerdagne 
and  Roussillon.  By  the  Treaty  of  Barcelona,  of  January  3, 
1493,  Charles  VIII  agreed  to  cancel  the  debt  and  give  up  the 

13 


CENTURY    OF   THE    RENAISSANCE 

security  in  return  for  the  neutrality  of  Aragon.  Maximilian 
had  entered  a  claim  for  the  return  of  the  provinces  which  he 
had  given  his  daughter,  Margaret  of  Austria,  as  a  dowry,  before 
she  had  been  sent  home  to  him  by  Charles  VIII  upon  his  marriage 
with  Anne  of  Brittany.  By  the  terms  of  the  Treaty  of  Senlis, 
Charles  VIII  gave  back  Franche-Comte  and  Artois  to  Maxi- 
milian. Thus  did  the  King  of  France  relinquish  the  substance 
for  the  shadow  ! 

When  these  arrangements  had  been  made,   Charles  VIII 
set    forth.       His     army,    which    had    been    laboriously    con- 
centrated, marched  on  ahead,  divided  into  two  bodies.      The 
Charles  Vin       land  army  was  under  the  command  of  Gilbert 
enters  Italy.       de    Montpensier ;  the    troops    destined    for    em- 
barkation were   placed  under  the  Duke  of  Orleans,  who  had 
been    released    from   prison   and    had    made    his    peace   with 
the    King.      The  Col    di    Genevra  was   crossed,   the    baggage 
being  carried  by  mules.     But  no  sooner   had   the  troops  left 
the  mountains    behind  them,  than  they  discovered  that  they 
were    already    short    of    money.       Charles    VIII,     however, 
received  a  friendly  welcome  from  the   Duke   and   Duchess    of 
Savoy,  from  whom  he  borrowed   12,000   ducats,  and  at  Asti 
he  fell  in  with  Ludovico  the  Moor,  from  whom  he  extracted 
60,000  ducats.     King  Ferrante  of  Naples,  terrified  by  the  storm 
that  was  about  to  break  over  his  head,  had  tried  to  raise  troops 
and  collect  thirty  galleys.     He  had  sent  envoy  after  envoy  far 
and  wide  to  seek  allies.     His  overtures,   however,   had  been 
coldly  received.     To  the  court  of  Charles  VIII  he  had  dispatched 
ambassadors  charged  to  bribe  the  French  King's  counsellors. 
They   had   been   conducted    back  to   the   frontier.     Ferrante, 
maddened  by  this,  died  of  rage.     His  son,  Alfonso  of  Calabria, 
who  succeeded  him,  inherited  all  his  cruelty  without  his  talents. 
He  dispatched  his  brother,  Frederick,  to    Genoa,  with  orders 
to   attack  the   French  troops   as   they   embarked.     Frederick 
landed  at  Rapallo,    near  Genoa,   with  4000  men,   whom  the 
Duke  of  Orleans  speedily  attacked  with  his  Swiss  troops  and 
routed.     This  first  French  victory  caused  a  great  stir. 

Charles  VIII,  after  a  mild  attack  of  small-pox,  renewed  his 
march.  The  forces  that  followed  him  felt  no  enthusiasm  for 
the  enterprise.  They  found  the  weather  hot  and  the  wine  sour. 
14 


"SMOKE    AND    GLORY"    OF    ITALY 

As  Comines  says,  "  They  firmlybelieved  that  the  King  would  go 
no  farther."  The  State  of  Milan  was  crossed  without  difficulty 
(October,  1494).  At  Milan  Charles  paid  a  visit  to  his  cousin 
Gian  Galeazzo  Maria,  whom  he  found  laid  up  in  bed,  very  weak 
and  ill,  and  then  marched  on  to  Placentia.  He  advanced 
with  an  escort  of  7000  cavalry  and  forty  cannon,  followed  by  a 
throng  of  vehicles.  Sometimes  he  drove,  sometimes  he  rode 
on  horseback,  dressed  invariably  in  black.  The  whole  of  the 
French  army  collected  at  Placentia,  presenting  to  the  astonished 
eyes  of  the  Italians  a  motley  and  barbarous  crov/d.  They 
were,  according  to  Sanuto  :  "  A  haughty  people,  full  of  courage 
and  spirit,  who  had  enormous  wide  slippers  on  their  feet,  very 
long  stirrups,  top  boots  coming  up  over  their  greaves,  large 
hats  on  their  heads,  and  short  coats  with  long  sleeves."  The 
Italians  were  greatly  incensed. 

The  next  step  was  to  enter  Tuscany.  At  Florence,  the 
ruling  city  of  the  district,  the  people  were  quite  willing  to 
Charles  VIII  receive  Charles  VIII.  But  Piero  de'  Medici, 
at  Florence.  whose  wealthy  relatives  had  succeeded  in 
abolishing  the  republic,  would  not  give  his  consent. 
The  Dominican  monk,  Girolamo  Savonarola,  who  was 
an  eloquent  preacher  and  a  stirring  apostle  of  the  people, 
had,  in  his  sermons,  long  been  condemning  the  pagan 
corruption  of  manners.  "  You  will  be  punished  !  "  he  warned 
the  Florentines.  "  There  cometh  a  man  who  in  a  few  weeks 
will  overrun  Italy  without  drawing  the  sword,  and  fortresses 
shall  fall  before  him  "  !  The  attitude  of  Savonarola  lent  strength 
to  the  feelings  of  the  populace.  Charles  VIII  advanced  and 
crossed  the  Apennines.  Piero  de'  Medici,  caught  between  two 
fires,  came  to  him  and  offered  to  allow  him  to  cross  Tuscany 
on  condition  that  the  French  King  secured  him  in  his  ruler- 
ship  of  Florence.  Charles  VIII  accepted  his  terms  and  borrowed 
200,000  ducats  from  him.  The  Florentines,  however,  rose 
up  in  fury  against  Piero  de'  Medici  and  sacked  his  house. 
Charles  VIII  marched  forward  to  Lucca  and  Pisa,  and  finally 
reached  Florence  on  November  17.  He  was  accorded  a  mag- 
nificent reception,  in  spite  of  two  heavy  showers  which  forced 
the  clergy,  in  their  gold-embroidered  vestments,  to  retreat. 
The  streets  were  strewn  with  sand  and  adorned  with  hangings  ; 

15 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

the  bells  pealed  and  crowds  of  people  hailed  him.  The  Italians 
were  astonished  at  the  sight  of  the  great  drums  and  small  fifes  of 
the  French  troops  ;  they  were  filled  with  admiration  by  their 
beautiful  gilt  halberds,  and  the  archers  of  the  guard,  with 
their  '  hoquetons,''  or  mantles,  covered  with  gold  lace,  looked 
like  noblemen  in  their  eyes.  Charles  VIII,  however,  mounted 
on  his  black  horse,  with  his  gilded  armour,  his  jacket  of  gold 
brocade,  his  full  blue  cloak  and  his  white  hat  covered  with 
black  plumes  and  surmounted  by  the  royal  crown,  seemed  to 
them  insignificant.  Meanwhile,  Gian  Galeazzo  Maria  had 
died  in  Milan.  Ludovico  at  once  had  himself  proclaimed 
Duke  of  Milan,  after  having  bought  the  consent  of  the  Emperor 
of  Germany  with  a  sum  of  money.  Charles  VIII  was  taken 
entirely  by  surprise,  but  he  was  so  deeply  involved  in  his  under- 
taking, that  he  was  obliged  to  make  the  best  of  a  bad  business, 
and  bow  to  circumstances  over  which  he  had  no  control. 

His  sojourn  in  Florence  proved  a  pitiful  affair.  The 
Florentines,  irritated  by  the  King's  awkwardness,  showed 
themselves  hostile.  Charles  VIII  prevailed  upon  them  to 
allow  Piero  de'  Medici  to  return  as  a  private  citizen.  Some 
scuffles  took  place,  and  at  last  the  people  paid  Charles  VIII 
120,000  gold  ducats  and  requested  him  to  take  his  departure, 
which  he  did  on  November  28. 

He  now  had  to  cross  the  Papal  States.  Alexander  VI, 
who  had  but  little  love  for  the  House  of  Aragon,  was  never- 
Charles  VIII  theless  still  less  in  favour  of  the  King  of  France 
in  Rome.  as  a  neighbour  in  Naples.     On  being  asked  whether 

he  would  allow  Charles  VIII  to  cross  his  territory  or  not,  he 
was  at  a  loss  to  know  what  answer  to  give.  Mechanically, 
he  took  measures  to  fortify  himself  and  then  sent  to  beg 
the  King  not  to  come.  Finally,  moved  by  a  sudden  impulse, 
he  summoned  the  Neapolitan  Duke  of  Calabria  to  Rome 
with  5000  infantry  and  fifty-five  squadrons.  The  French 
immediately  made  a  rapid  advance.  Gilbert  de  Montpensier 
galloped  with  his  cavalry  right  up  to  the  walls  of  Rome.  At 
this  moment  a  piece  of  the  city  walls  fell  in,  an  occurrence 
which  the  Pope  regarded  as  a  sign  from  heaven  for  him  to  yield. 
The  Duke  of  Calabria  was  asked  to  evacuate  Rome,  whose 
gates  were  thrown  open  for  1500  French  soldiers  to  march 
16 


"SMOKE    AND    GLORY"    OF    ITALY 

through  the  streets  on  December  27.  Charles  VIII  arrived 
on  the  31st  by  night,  without  making  any  show.  The  Pope 
had  shut  himself  up  in  the  Vatican,  thinking  that  the  French 
wished  to  depose  him.  He  was  meditating  hurling  a  bull  of 
major  excommunication  against  the  King  of  France  when, 
upon  further  reflection,  he  decided  to  come  to  terms  and  granted 
him  a  free  passage  and  stores,  together  with  Civita  Vecchia 
and  Ostia.  Alexander  VI  and  Charles  now  became  extremely 
friendly.  Bri^onnet  obtained  his  Cardinal's  hat  and  the  King, 
after  staying  at  the  Vatican  and  receiving  a  solemn  blessing 
from  the  Pope  on  January  28,  took  his  departure. 

Meanwhile,  Alfonso  of  Naples,  terrified,  and  realizing  that 
his  subjects  were  irreconcilably  hostile  to  him,  had  abdicated 
Entry  into  ^^  favour  of  his  son  Ferrante  II.     The  populace 

Naples,  1495.  of  Naples  had  risen  up  with  shouts  of  "  Francia  " 
and  Ferrante  had  only  just  had  time  to  shut  himself  up 
in  the  Castel  dell'  Uovo  while  his  faithful  friend  Pescara 
held  Castel  Nuovo.  The  vanguard  of  the  French  army 
advanced  apace  and  Marshal  de  Gi6,  with  forty  horse, 
took  one  of  the  city  gates  amid  the  cheers  of  the  crowd. 
Charles  VIII  reached  Poggio  Reale,  the  country  seat  of  the 
Kings  of  Naples,  whither  Neapolitan  envoys  were  sent  to 
congratulate  him.  At  this  point  Ferrante  fled  to  the  island  of 
Ischia  and  from  thence  to  Messina,  and  the  Castel  dell'  Uovo, 
also  surrendered  to  Charles  VIII,  who  had  ridden  into  the  city 
on  February  12,  with  ninety  horse  and  found  himself  master 
of  Naples.  In  a  few  days  the  provinces  on  all  sides  offered  to 
submit.  The  conquest  had  been  achieved,  accomplished  by 
magic,  as  in  a  dream,  without  resistance  and  without  effort. 

Charles  VIII  was  enchanted.  He  sent  accounts  of  his 
victories  to  France,  and  had  them  all  printed  and  distributed 
in  the  form  of  "  bulletins  of  the  Grand  Army,"  one  of  the  first 
examples  of  an  "  inspired  "  press.  He  then  set  to  work  to 
organize  his  new  kingdom,  confirming  privileges,  lowering  the 
taxes,  appointing  magistrates  and  governors,  and  distributing 
rewards  all  round.  Etienne  de  Vesc  was  given  two  Duchies, 
d'Aubigny  was  made  a  Marquis,  lands  were  divided  amongst 
his  archers  and  officers,  and  the  Duke  of  Montpensier  was  made 
Lieutenant -General  and  Viceroy  of  the  kingdom.      After  this 

B  17 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

Charles  VIII  sought  diversion  ;  he  organized  jousts  and  festivals, 
and  gave  himself  up  to  amusement,  whilst  his  army  drank  and 
revelled  beneath  soft  and  pleasant  skies. 

But  he  had  a  rude  awakening.  The  Italian  States  roused 
themselves  from  the  stupor  into  which  the  rapid  conquest  of 
Retreat  of  the  kingdom  of  Naples  had  cast  them.  They 
Charles  VIII.  realized  that  they  were  all  threatened,  and  joining 
together  decided  to  form  a  league  against  the  dangerous 
victor,  calling  in  the  help  of  the  Emperor  and  the  King 
of  Spain.  On  April  1,  1495,  in  the  cabinet  of  the  Doge,  at 
Venice,  a  league  was  formed  including  the  Pope,  the 
Emperor,  the  King  of  Spain,  Ludovico  the  Moor — who  was 
now  anxious  to  defend  himself  against  Charles  VIII — and 
Venice.  The  King  of  France  was  indignant.  He  flew  into  a 
passion,  exclaiming  that  it  was  a  scandalous  shame.  Never- 
theless, the  allies  continued  to  arm,  and  there  was  no  time  to 
be  lost.  It  was  imperative  for  Charles  VIII  to  reach  the  French 
frontier  as  quickly  as  possible  if  he  wished  to  avoid  being  cut 
off  from  the  Alps.  The  French  fleet  had  not  been  of  much 
use  since  the  victory  at  Rapallo,  and  the  Duke  of  Orleans  had 
even  gone  so  far  as  to  shut  himself  up  in  Asti.  Charles  VIII 
summoned  his  ships  to  Naples  to  take  away  part  of  the  artillery 
and  the  booty,  and  then,  after  having  indulged  in  a  childish 
notion  of  having  himself  crowned  King  of  Naples,  and  making 
a  solemn  entry  into  the  city,  clothed  in  the  purple  robes  of 
emperor,  and  holding  the  imperial  orb  in  his  hand,  he  set  forth 
on  his  return  journey,  leaving  12,000  men  behind  him  under 
the  command  of  Montpensier. 

He  took  the  same  route  by  which  he  had  come.  The  Pope 
did  not  wait  to  receive  him  but  took  flight,  and  ambassadors 
were  sent  by  Florence  to  implore  Charles  VIII  not  to  pass 
through  that  city.  The  king  was  irritated  by  this,  but  made 
direct  for  Pisa  and  began  crossing  the  Apennines. 

The  allies  were  lying  in  wait  for  him  on  the  other  side  of 
the  mountains.  They  had  40,000  men  under  the  command 
Battle  o£  o^   Francesco   di   Gonzaga,    Marquis   of   Mantua, 

Fomovo,  1495.  who  had  sent  on  his  vanguard  as  far  as  Fornovo, 
on  the  Ceno,  at  the  foot  of  the  hills.  Charles  VIII  had  only 
10,000  men.  The  rest  were  either  in  garrison,  or  dispersed 
18 


"SMOKE    AND    GLORY"    OF    ITALY 

and  lost.  He  met  with  great  difficulty  in  crossing  the  passes, 
for  it  was  the  end  of  June  and  the  heat  was  stifling. 
The  cannon,  fourteen  huge  pieces,  had  to  be  dragged  along 
by  the  Swiss  guards.  On  June  30  the  French  army  took 
up  its  position  round  Fornovo,  and  on  July  6  the  two  armies 
met.  It  was  raining,  the  cannon  boomed,  the  troops  charged 
with  lances  lowered  and  a  furious  hand  to  hand  fight  took  place. 
At  this  juncture  the  baggage  convoy  of  the  French  army  was 
seen  advancing  on  the  left.  The  allies  jumped  to  the  conclusion 
that  the  baggage,  which  was  said  to  contain  much  booty,  was 
going  to  slip  through  their  fingers.  Many  of  them  made  a  rush 
for  it.  The  lines  wavered  and  the  French  seized  the  oppor- 
tunity to  break  through.  In  a  short  time,  thanks  to  the  in- 
efficiency of  the  Italian  soldiery,  the  enemy  was  routed. 

With  the  road  thus  cleared  before  him,  Charles  VIII  pressed 
forward  as  quickly  as  possible.  In  a  week  he  reached  Placentia 
amid  tropical  heat.  He  passed  the  town  without  entering  it, 
marched  by  Alessandria,  and  on  July  15  reached  Asti.  Mean- 
while all  his  work  at  Naples  had  fallen  to  pieces.  King  Ferrante 
re-entered  the  town  amid  the  acclamations  of  the  same  populace 
which  had  saluted  Charles  VIII  with  cheers,  and  the  whole 
kingdom  returned  to  its  former  allegiance.  Gilbert  de  Mont- 
pensier  at  first  shut  himself  up  in  Castel  Nuovo.  He  afterwards 
took  flight,  collected  10,000  men,  which  were  all  that  remained 
of  the  French  army,  and  was  besieged  at  Atella.  On  July  20 
he  capitulated  and  four  months  later  died  of  fever,  a  prisoner 
in  the  hands  of  Ferrante.  No  sign  remained  of  the  fleeting 
conquest  of  Naples  ;   and  Charles  VIII  recrossed  the  Alps. 

What  had  he  gained  by  this  enterprise,  which  according  to 
Comines,  had  not  proved  ill-omened  from  the  beginning  merely 
Futility  of  "  because  the  expedition    had    been    guided    by 

the  Expedi-  God,  and  owed  but  little  to  the  good  sense  of 
tion.  its  leaders  "  ?     He  had  gained  nothing — "nothing 

but  glory  and  smoke,"  says  the  same  writer.  It  is 
asserted  that  the  French,  wonder-struck,  discovered  Italy 
and  brought  back  the  Renaissance  with  them.  Con- 
temporary writers,  however,  prove  that  this  crowd  of  rough 
men-at-arms  crossed  Italy  with  their  eyes  shut.  The  poets 
Octavien  de  Saint  Gelais  and  Andre  de  la  Vigne,  in  their  Vergier 

19 


CENTURY    OF   THE   RENAISSANCE 

dlionneur  which  is  a  record  of  the  expedition,  describe  only 
the  merrymaking.  At  Pavia,  Comines  and  Gaguin,  it  is  true, 
noticed  a  Charterhouse  "  built  of  marble  with  a  doorway  in 
alabaster."  But  that  was  all !  The  thing  which  struck 
Charles  VIII  most  in  Florence  was  a  menagerie  of  lions.  He 
visited  Rome,  and  the  Vatican,  where  his  cicerone  was  Burchard, 
the  master  of  ceremonies.  In  his  Diarium,  the  latter  has  left 
us  a  description  of  this  visit.  Charles  VIII,  it  seems,  found 
nothing  to  admire  !  Naples  alone  made  any  impression  on 
him.  He  wrote  that  he  was  particularly  struck  by  the  gardens 
and  the  ceilings  of  the  houses.  He  was  anxious  to  take  back 
workmen  with  him  and  engaged  about  twenty  men,  joiners, 
tailors,  and  "  scent -makers  "  as  well  as  masons,  painters,  and 
sculptors.  The  only  certain  fact  we  know  about  these  workmen 
is  that  one  of  them,  Pacello  de  Mercoliano,  introduced  Italian 
gardens  at  Amboise  and  Blois.  Charles  VIII  had  additions 
made  to  Amboise  both  before  and  after  the  expedition  ;  and 
further,  it  is  difficult  to  tell  what  was  due  to  him  and  what  to 
Louis  XII.  It  is,  consequently,  hard  to  see  what  impetus  the 
expedition  against  Naples  gave  to  the  progress  of  the  arts  in 
France. 

The  remainder  of  his  reign  was  short  and  sad.  It  was  only 
possible  for  sickly  children  to  spring  from  a  father  so  unhealthy 
Death  oJ  ^^  Charles  VIII.     He  had  two  children,  the  elder 

Charles  VIII,  of  whom  was  named  Charles  Orland.  But  they 
1498.  both  died  on  his  return  from  Italy.     He  did  not 

seem  to  feel  their  loss  and  "  his  mourning  was  but  short-lived." 
He  was  not  destined  to  survive  them  long.  On  April  7, 
1498,  on  the  "eve  of  Palm  Sunday,"  the  King  left  the 
Queen's  room  at  Amboise  about  twelve  or  one  o'clock 
in  the  day,  accompanied  by  his  wife,  to  go  and  watch 
a  game  of  tennis  in  the  castle  moat.  He  went  through  a 
gallery,  called  "  Haquelebac's  Gallery "  after  some  Swiss 
guard.  The  door  happened  to  be  out  of  order  and  he  struck 
his  forehead  against  it.  In  spite  of  this,  however,  he  went 
and  watched  the  players,  and  remained  a  long  time  talking 
and  chatting.  Suddenly  about  two  o'clock  he  fell  back  in  a 
famt.  They  laid  him  down  on  a  mattress,  where  he  remained 
till  eleven  o'clock  at  night,  surrounded  by  a  crowd  of  frightened 
20 


"SMOKE    AND    GLORY"    OF    ITALY 

people,  hurrying  to  and  fro.  Three  times  he  seemed  to  be 
coming  round  and  spoke  a  few  words.  But  at  eleven  o'clock 
he  breathed  his  last.  The  real  reason  of  his  death  is  uncertain, 
as  also  whether  or  not  the  blow  he  gave  himself  was  in  any  way 
responsible  for  his  end.  Comines  speaks  of  a  "  catarrh  or 
apoplexy,"  probably  a  cerebral  lesion.  He  was  twenty-eight 
when  he  died.  He  was  given  magnificent  obsequies,  which 
lasted  a  month  and  cost  45,000  francs. 

The  Duke  of  Orleans,  who  succeeded  him  as  Louis  XII,  was 
a  man  of  thirty-six.  He  was  a  second  cousin  of  Louis  XI 
Louis  XII  through  his  father  the  poet,  Charles  of  Orleans, 

1498-1515.  his  grandfather  Louis  of  Orleans,  who  was  assas- 
sinated in  the  Rue  Barbette,  and  his  ancestor  Charles  V. 
Years  had  brought  him  discretion.  He  again  was  not  handsome  ; 
he  was  thin,  with  a  pronounced  stoop,  a  bony  face  and  a  long 
nose.  He  had  the  feeble  health  of  an  old  man's  son,  as  his  father 
was  well  advanced  in  years  when  he  was  born,  and  throughout 
his  life  he  remained  a  valetudinarian.  He  had  been  brought 
up  to  love  physical  exercise.  According  to  Saint  Gelais  he 
was  a  good  rider  and  hunter,  a  skilled  wrestler  and  a  fine 
tennis  player.  He  was  a  marvellous  archer  and  withal,  if 
tradition  is  to  be  believed,  a  hearty  eater  and  heavy  drinker. 
He  was,  moreover,  a  charming  man,  with  an  elegant,  easy 
carriage,  "sweet-tempered,  gracious,  and  benign."  He  was 
always  amiable  and  good-natured  with  everybody,  obliging, 
anxious  not  to  give  offence,  easy  to  get  on  with,  and  open- 
handed.  His  manner  was  "  urbane  and  frank  "  ;  he  was,  in 
short,  endowed  with  an  altogether  sympathetic  nature,  which 
he  inherited  from  his  mother,  Mary  of  Cleves,  who  was  the  best 
of  creatures  and  the  most  modest  of  women.  He  had  been 
brought  up  at  Blois,  his  birthplace,  which  he  loved  to  the  end 
of  his  days,  surrounded  by  all  the  wealth  and  luxury  that  ample 
means  could  afford — for  his  family  was  extremely  rich.  This 
circumstance  gave  him  the  distinction  of  a  gentleman  of  birth 
and  breeding,  of  which  the  elder  branch  of  the  family  could  no 
longer  boast. 

Such  were  the  qualities  which  made  Louis  XII  so  popular, 
that  throughout  the  centuries  he  has  preserved  the  reputation 
of  a  good  king.     The  masses  loved  him  for  his  kindness  and  his 

21 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

sense  of  justice,  and  considered  themselves  happy  under  his 
rule.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  this  well-being  was  due  to  the  ex- 
ceptional prosperity  enjoyed  by  France  at  the  end  of  the 
fifteenth  and  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century,  a  con- 
dition to  be  attributed  to  complicated  economic  causes  gene- 
rally prevalent  at  the  time,  for  which  Louis  XII  was  in  no 
way  personally  responsible.  He  merely  reaped  the  fruit  of  this 
auspicious  state  of  affairs.  For  his  policy,  with  its  perpetual 
wars  and  consequent  ruinous  expenditure,  ought  to  have  made 
him  a  hated  monarch.  But  his  country's  good  fortune  saved 
his  reputation  by  allowing  him  to  meet  his  expenses  without 
over-burdening  the  people,  and  his  own  attractive  personality 
did  the  rest. 

The  levity  of  mind  of  which  he  had  been  accused  in  his 
youth  by  Louis  XI  and  Anne  de  Beaujeu,  covered  a  substratum 
of  somewhat  mediocre  intelligence.  His  policy  was  never 
skilful  and  his  lack  of  aptitude  for  statecraft  lent  an  undue 
importance  to  his  counsellors. 

The  principal  and  most  celebrated  of  these  was  Cardinal 
Georges  dAmboise.  The  son  of  a  former  chamberlain  of 
Cardinal  Charles  VII  and  Louis  XI,  he  had  been  destined 

Georges  for  the  Church,  and  at  the  age  of  fourteen  had 

d'Amboise.  been  appointed  Bishop  of  Montauban.  At  Court 
he  made  the  acquaintance  of  the  future  King  Louis  XII, 
who  was  his  junior  by  three  years,  and  the  two  young  men 
formed  an  intimate  friendship  which  was  to  last  through- 
out their  lives.  From  Montauban,  Georges  dAmboise  was 
raised  to  the  bishopric  of  Narbonne,  and  after  that  he 
became  Archbishop  of  Rouen.  On  his  accession,  Louis  XII 
made  him  his  minister.  He  was  a  sweet-tempered  man  of 
refined  demeanour,  prudent,  fat,  and  bald,  somewhat  heavy 
and  slow  of  comprehension,  but  diligent  and  loyal.  Louis  XII 
placed  the  utmost  confidence  in  him.  He  comprised  in  his 
person  "the  whole  government  of  the  king  and  of  France." 
He  was  endowed  with  a  sense  of  economy  and  of  justice,  the  two 
virtues  which  stood  highest  in  the  estimation  of  the  people 
who  used  to  exclaim  familiarly  ;  "  Leave  it  to  Georges  !  "  He 
had  a  love  of  magnificence  ;  was  himself  responsible  for  several 
buildings,  and  spurred  on  Louis  XII  to  follow  his  example. 
22 


"SMOKE    AND    GLORY"    OF    ITALY 

Only  two  faults  marred  his  character.  He  was  too  anxious 
to  push  forward  his  own  family,  his  brothers  and  his  nephews  ; 
and  he  was  over-ambitious.  He  had  set  his  heart  upon  be- 
coming Pope,  an  aspiration  which  proved  a  source  of  great 
vexation  to  his  country.  But,  like  his  master,  he  profited 
by  the  extraordinary  prosperity  of  the  masses  at  this  time  and 
consequently  left  behind  him  the  reputation  of  having  been  a 
better  minister  than  he  really  was. 

The  other  counsellors  were  men  of  well-balanced  minds, 
used  to  the  conduct  of  affairs  of  State — Chancellor  Guy 
Louis  XII's  d^  Rochefort ;  Marshal  de  Gie ;  Louis  de  la 
advisers.  Tremoille  ;  Canon  ifitienne  Poncher  ;    Florimond 

Robertet,  and  Imbcrt  de  Batarnay,  Admiral  de  Graville. 
Louis  de  la  Tremoille  was  the  man  who  had  beaten  the  Duke 
of  Orleans  at  the  Battle  of  Saint  Aubin  du  Cormier,  and  he 
felt  somewhat  nervous  when  the  new  King  ascended  the 
throne.  His  fears,  however,  were  set  at  rest  by  Louis  XII's 
amiable  reception  of  him.  Etienne  Poncher,  who  afterwards 
became  Bishop  of  Paris,  was  a  learned  and  extremely  eloquent 
divine  and  a  virile  personality,  endowed  with  sound  judgment  ; 
whilst  Florimond  Robertet,  "  Florimond  the  good  "  as  he  was 
called,  the  son  of  a  humble  Montbrison  family,  who  was 
destined,  on  the  death  of  Georges  d'Amboise,  to  take  the  whole 
weight  of  the  government  on  his  shoulders,  was  a  zealous 
administrator  and  a  precise  and  conscientious  worker — the 
prototype  and  model  of  all  secretaries  of  State,  whose  fore- 
runner he  was. 

As  soon  as  Louis  XII  became  King  he  set  to  work  to  calm 
the  fears  of  all  who  had  reason  to  tremble  at  his  accession. 
"It  is  not  becoming  or  honourable  to  a  King  of  France,"  he  was 
fond  of  saying,  "  to  avenge  the  quarrels  of  a  Duke  of  Orleans." 
He  made  it  known  that  he  would  introduce  no  changes  either 
in  things  or  persons.  He  was  most  considerate  to  all  with 
whom  he  came  in  contact,  and  everybody  thought  him  perfect. 
Anne  of  Brittany,  above  all,  who  was  weighed  down  with  grief, 
had  nothing  but  praise  to  bestow  on  his  behaviour  towards  her. 
He  was  extremely  attentive  to  her.  By  the  terms  of  her 
marriage  contract  with  Charles  VIII,  she  was  bound,  in  the 
case  of  being  left  a  widow,  to  marry  her  husband's  successor. 

23 


CENTURY    OF   THE    RENAISSANCE 

Louis  XII  was  not  forgetful  of  this.  He  realized  that  he  would 
derive  three  advantages  from  such  a  marriage  ;  he  would  keep 
Brittany ;  he  would  marry  a  princess  with  whom  he  had  long 
been  secretly  in  love  ;  and  he  would  have  to  repudiate  his  own 
wife,  who  was  ugly  and  had  no  children  and  towards  whom 
he  felt  utterly  indifferent.  He  made  this  the  first  duty  of  his 
reign. 

Jeanne  de  France,  the  wife  of  Louis  XII,  was  a  daughter 
of  Louis  XI.  She  was  a  woman  with  masculine  features — to 
Annulment  ol  J^^S^  ^Y  ^^^  death-mask  in  the  Louvre — lean  and 
Louis  XII's  ungraceful,  "  short,  dark,  round-shouldered  "  and 
first  lame   into   the   bargain.     The   match   had   been 

marriage.  arranged  by  Louis  XI  to  suit  his  convenience, 

and  he  had  had  the  couple  married  when  they  were  mere 
children.  The  Duke  of  Orleans,  who  was  but  eleven  years 
old  at  the  time,  had  wept  and  refused  to  do  as  he  was 
bid.  The  old  king  had  then  threatened  to  make  "  a  monk  or 
a  priest  "  of  him,  and  he  had  been  obliged  to  give  way.  But 
the  young  prince  never  developed  any  feeling  of  affection  for  his 
wife.  As  soon  as  he  had  decided  to  marry  Anne  of  Brittany, 
Louis  XII's  first  step  was  to  get  his  former  marriage  annulled 
by  the  Papal  Court.  The  Chair  of  St.  Peter  was  occupied 
at  this  time  by  Alexander  VI,  the  famous  Borgia.  Georges 
d'Amboise  had  an  interview  with  the  pontiff's  sinister  son,  Csesar 
Borgia,  and  they  agreed  to  terms  together.  The  grounds 
for  annulling  the  marriage  were  based  upon  eight  canonical 
objections — the  youth  of  the  parties,  their  consanguinity,  the 
absent  of  consent  on  their  part,  &c.  The  suit  ended  favour- 
ably and,  as  a  reward  for  his  pains,  Louis  XII  granted  Ccesar 
Borgia  the  County  of  Valentinois,  which  he  raised  to  the  rank 
of  a  Duchy,  and  a  pension  of  20,000  pounds.  In  return  for 
this  Caesar  brought  a  Cardinal's  hat  to  Paris  for  Georges 
d'Amboise.  Jeanne  de  France  conducted  her  defence  with 
dignity  and  firmness.  Public  sympathy  was  on  her  side  and 
Louis  XII  did  not  show  to  advantage.  The  judges,  however, 
naturally  returned  a  verdict  in  favour  of  the  annulment,  which 
was  thereupon  decreed.  The  unfortunate  Jeanne,  who  was 
consoled  by  visions,  humbly  accepted  the  will  of  God.  She 
retired  to  Bourges,  where  she  founded  the  Order  of  the 
24 


"SMOKE  AND  GLORY"  OF  ITALY 

Annunciation,  and  in  1505  she  died  there  in  obscurity,  unnoticed 
by  the  world,  but  locally  regarded  as  a  saint. 

Anne    of    Brittany    accepted    Louis    XII.     Having    loved 
Charles  VIII,  she  was  also  ready  to  love  her  new  husband. 

She  had  tasted  of  the  sweets  of  royalty  and  did 
Marriage  of  not  care  to  return  to  the  rank  of  a  mere  duchess. 
Louis  XII  and  ^^g  marriage  was  celebrated  at  Nantes,  in 
B^f  °^  January  1499.     "  The  shrewd  Brittany  woman," 

1449.     '  ^s  Louis  XII  used  playfully  to  call  her,  took  care 

to  make  a  stipulation  that  if  she  died  without 
issue,  Brittany  should  not  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  King 
of  France,  but  should  remain  in  her  own  family.  The 
newly  married  couple  took  up  their  abode  in  the  castle  of 
Blois  and,  to  judge  by  their  mutual  tenderness  and  their 
devotion  and  loyalty  to  each  other,  they  must  have  been  a 
model  couple. 

This  first  act  of  the  new  reign  was  followed  by  another 
far  graver  in  its  results.     Louis  XII  conceived  the  desire  of 

invading  Italy  to  conquer  the  Duchy  of  Milan. 
Louis  XII  s  There  was  no  immediate  connexion  between 
Conquest?^        this  enterprise  and  that  of  Charles  VIII.     The 

motives  which  led  up  to  it  and  the  end  in  view 
were  alike  different.  Whilst  it  was  not  quite  so  mad  as 
Charles'  scheme  for  the  conquest  of  Constantinople  via  Naples, 
Louis  XII's  project  was  none  the  less  extremely  impolitic. 
As  ifitienne  Poncher,  who  was  violently  opposed  to  the  idea, 
maintained  at  the  king's  council-board,  Louis  XII  would 
have  done  far  better  to  turn  his  attention  towards  "  fixing 
the  boundaries  "  of  his  own  kingdom.  For  years  Louis  XII 
squandered  men  and  money  in  trying  to  keep  this  precarious 
conquest.  He  became  involved  in  an  interminable  and  tedious 
series  of  international  complications  which  were  constantly 
breaking  out  afresh,  and  in  the  end  merely  resulted  in  his 
final  evacuation  of  Italy  !  Few  reigns  afford  the  spectacle 
of  a  policy  so  vain,  supported  by  so  many  futile  efforts.  The 
council,  or  rather  Georges  d'Amboise  in  the  council,  upheld 
and  encouraged  the  king.  The  fact  that  during  the  French 
occupation  of  Milan,  Georges  d'Amboise  tried  by  every  means 
in  his  power  to  have  himself  elected  Pope,  seems  to  point  to 

25 


CENTURY    OF   THE    RENAISSANCE 

the  true  reason  of  Louis  XII's  persistency  in  maintaining  his 
rights  over  the  Duchy  of  Milan. 

These  rights  were  derived  from  his  grandmother,  Valentina 
Visconti,  daughter  of  Gian  Galeazzo  Visconti,  the  first  Duke 
of  Milan,  and  wife  of  that  Louis  of  Orleans  who  was  murdered 
by  John  the  Fearless.  As  the  line  of  Gian  Galeazzo  had  be- 
come extinct,  the  descendants  of  Valentina  should  by  right 
have  been  lords  of  Milan.  But  during  the  fifteenth  century 
the  princes  of  the  House  of  Orleans  had  either  been  prisoners 
in  London,  or  else  were  too  young  to  assert  themselves,  and 
the  Sforzas,  who  were  condottieri,  had  seized  their  lands.  All 
the  House  of  Orleans  had  managed  to  keep  was  the  county  of 
Asti,  in  Piedmont,  which  had  been  Valentina's  dowry.  Louis  XII 
made  up  his  mind  to  claim  his  rights,  which  had  been  in 
abeyance  for  fifty  years,  ever  since  1447.  Louis  XII  may 
not  have  avenged  his  wrongs  as  Duke  of  Orleans  on  private 
individuals,  but  he  was  thoroughly  mediocre  in  his  policy  and 
used  his  people's  money  to  support  a  cause  which  concerned 
his  dukedom,  but  was  of  no  interest  to  the  nation  at  large. 

The  council,  obliged  to  follow  his  lead,  prepared  for  the 
venture.  Negotiations  were  entered  into  with  foreign  Powers 
to  secure  their  neutrality.  Venice  was  approached 
Conquest  oi  ^ith  a  view  to  an  alliance  and  the  Swiss  for  a 
supply  of  soldiers.  Caesar  Borgia  was  flattered 
in  order  to  win  over  the  Pope.  The  scandalous  Ludovico 
Sforza,  who  was  universally  hated  on  account  of  his  knavery, 
was  abandoned  by  all.  By  July,  1499,  the  French  army 
was  ready.  The  three  generals  in  command,  Gian  Giacomo 
Trivulzio,  Louis  de  Luxembourg,  Lord  of  Ligny,  and  Stuart 
dAubigny  crossed  the  Alps  with  13,000  foot,  6000  horse  and 
fifty-eight  cannon.  They  seized  upon  the  strongholds  one  by 
one.  Alessandria  was  captured  by  assault  and  brutally  sacked. 
Isolated  and  betrayed  on  every  hand,  Ludovico  packed  up  his 
treasure  in  carts  and  fled  to  Como.  Thence  he  crossed  the 
Alps,  where  he  had  to  hide  in  a  grotto,  and  finally  took  refuge 
at  Innsbruck  with  the  Emperor  Maximilian,  the  strangest  and 
most  changeable  personality  of  his  time.  The  State  of  Milan  was 
now  in  the  hands  of  Louis  XII.  A  leisurely  march  of  twenty  days 
had  been  sufficient  to  ensure  its  occupation.  Meanwhile,  on  the 
26 


"SMOKE  AND  GLORY"  OF  ITALY 

east,  Venice,  the  ally  of  the  French,  was  laying  hands  upon 
the  whole  of  the  Cremona  district,  as  far  as  the  Adda,  a  task 
much  to  her  liking.  Delighted  by  his  conquests,  Louis  XII 
decided  to  pay  his  new  territories  a  visit.  He  was  given 
a  magnificent  reception  everywhere.  He  feasted,  granted 
audiences  to  ambassadors  from  every  corner  of  Italy  who 
came  to  bow  before  the  conqueror,  and  lent  some  of  his 
French  troops  to  Caesar  Borgia,  for  the  conquest  of  the  towns 
of  Imola,  Forli,  and  Pesaro,  which  belonged  to  the  relatives 
of  Ludovico,  and  with  which  Caesar  proposed  to  create  a  small 
independent  principality  for  himself. 

However,  when  he  returned  to  France  to  take  into  his 
arms  the  little  daughter,  Claude,  who  had  just  been  born  to 
„  __..  him,  everything  changed  in  Milan.  Trivulzio, 
whom  he  left  behind  in  command,  committed 
several  blunders,  and  caused  great  discontent  by  his  "  haughty 
swashbuckler  airs."  The  French  soldiery,  moreover,  were 
brutal.  Ludovico  sent  emissaries  to  sound  the  country  and 
succeeded  in  raising  a  band  of  20,000  Italian,  Swiss,  and 
German  adventurers,  at  whose  head  he  crossed  the  frontier 
into  Milan.  The  people,  fickle  as  ever,  declared  them- 
selves in  his  favour.  On  January  25,  1500,  Milan  revolted 
and  Trivulzio,  who  escaped  death  by  the  skin  of  his  teeth, 
took  flight.  Ludovico  entered  Milan  in  triumph,  and  thus — 
the  usual  fate  of  such  achievements — a  conquest  gained  with 
ease  fell  to  pieces  at  a  touch.  The  French  evacuated  the  territory 
under  great  difficulties  and  retreated  to  the  foot  of  the  Alps. 

Louis  XII,  however,  was  determined  to  regain  his  possessions. 

A  fresh  army  crossed  the  Alps  under  the  command  of  Louis 

de  la  Tremoille,  who  was  accompanied  by  Georges 

?*®w^o«^®^*      dAmboise.     Ludovico  marched  with  30,000  men 

01  Milan.  ,      T-,         ,    P  1-11  i        1 

to  meet  the  French  force,  which  he  encountered 

at   Novara   on   April    8,    1500.      Unfortunately    for    him    his 

mercenaries  were  not  to  be  relied  upon.      They  had  no  desire 

to  enter   into  a  serious  conflict  and  their  pay  was   overdue. 

Some  refused  to  move,  others  deserted,  and  the  remainder  were 

utterly    routed.       Ludovico,     who    was    obliged    to    disguise 

himself  as  a  German  foot-soldier,   was  recognized  and  taken 

prisoner.     But  this  time  his  fate  was  sealed.     La  Tremoille 

27 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

treated  him  with  courtesy,  invited  him  to  dinner  and  tried  to 
console  him  by  talking  of  the  "  King's  clemency."  But  the 
unfortunate  man  was  destined  for  the  remainder  of  his  life  to 
pay  a  heavy  price  for  his  brief  spell  of  glory  and  good-fortune. 
Whilst  Cardinal  d'Amboise  entered  Milan  and  in  solemn  state 
promised  to  forgive  the  inhabitants  who  begged  for  mercy, 
Ludovico  was  conducted  by  an  escort  of  two  hundred  archers 
to  Lyons.  He  entered  the  town  through  serried  ranks  of 
curious  and  hostile  citizens  who  lined  the  streets  on  either  side. 
Mounted  on  a  mule  and  clad  in  a  black  camlet  cloak,  he  pre- 
sented an  impressive  figure  with  his  tall  frame,  his  long  white 
hair  and  his  cold  calm  glance.  Louis  XII  refused  to  receive 
him  and  had  him  imprisoned  first  at  Pierre-Encise,  afterwards 
at  Lys-Saint-Georges  in  Berry,  and  finally  at  Loches  in  "  a 
vaulted  underground  chamber  "  secured  by  iron  bars,  where 
he  is  believed  to  have  died  about  1510. 

It  was  left  to  Georges  d'Amboise  to  reorganize  the  State 
of  Milan.  He  had  appointed  as  governor  one  of  his  nephews, 
Charles  d'Amboise,  Lord  of  Chaumont-sur-Loire,  a  man,  who 
though  still  very  young,  was  already  Lord  High  Steward  of 
France.  He  was  a  mild,  benevolent  youth,  who  succeeded 
very  well  in  his  new  office.  As  a  sign  of  good  will  the  Pope 
nominated  Georges  d'Amboise  his  legate  in  France,  an  ex- 
tremely important  position,  which  practically  amounted  to 
making  him  Vice-Pope. 

Louis  XII,  delighted  by  his  success  and  having  whetted  his 
appetite  for  conquest,  now  conceived  the  notion  of  extending 
his  possessions  in  Italy.  With  this  object  in  view,  and  with 
the  traditional  claims  of  the  French  kings  over  Naples  as  his 
pretext,  he  revived  the  schemes  of  Charles  VIII  with  regard 
to  that  state.  His  predecessor's  failure  had  taught  him 
nothing  ;  he  may,  perhaps,  have  been  spurred  on  by  the  desire 
of  d'Amboise  to  get  nearer  Rome. 

With  the  sole  object  of  avoiding  a  dispute  with  the 
King  of  Spain,  should  the  latter  challenge  his  right  to  the 
coveted  kingdom,  Louis  XII  thought  it  wise  to 
Treaty  01  make    a  friendly  division    of    territory  between 

himself  and  his  possible  rival.  By  the  Treaty 
of  Granada  it  was  decided  that  Spain  should  have  Calabria  and 
28 


"SMOKE  AND  GLORY"  OF  ITALY 

Apulia,  and  that  France  should  take  the  rest — extremely 
vague  terms.  Thus  the  most  dangerous  adversary  was  satisfied 
and  Italy  was  humoured  by  the  suggestion  that  Louis  XII 
did  not  aspire  to  be  the  sole  conqueror  of  Naples.  These 
precautions,  however,  were  destined  to  recoil  upon  their  author. 
A  French  army  set  forth  on  the  march  in  May  1501,  under 
the  command  of  Stuart  dAubigny.     Cardinal  dAmboise  went 

on  ahead  and  Caesar  Borgia,  also  eager  for  a  share 
Na^?T\501      ^^  *^^  spoil,  led  the  rear-guard.     Once  again  the 

expedition  proved  a  mere  military  parade.  The 
French  entered  Rome  on  June  25,  where  they  received  the 
Pope's  blessing  and  good  wishes  which,  however,  were  not  as 
sincere  as  they  might  have  been.  The  French  and  Spaniards 
from  opposite  sides  made  a  simultaneous  invasion  of  Naples, 
whose  king,  Frederick,  unable  to  offer  any  resistance,  shut  up 
his  troops  in  some  of  the  towns.  The  latter  surrendered 
at  the  first  summons.  Capua,  alone,  was  carried  by  assault 
on  July  25  and  was  mercilessly  pillaged,  whilst  its  inhabitants 
were  put  to  the  sword.  Frederick,  in  terror,  capitulated  and 
left  the  country  in  tears  "  with  his  disconsolate  wife  and  children 
stripped  of  their  patrimony."  He  retreated  to  France  where 
he  was  promised  a  pension  of  50,000  pounds.  Upon  his  de- 
parture the  Spaniards  and  the  French  each  took  the  share  of 
territory  allotted  them  by  the  terms  of  the  Treaty  of  Granada. 
The  Spaniards  were  under  the  command  of  Gonzalo  di  Cordova, 
a  soldier  of  great  valour,  a  skilled  general  and  a  cold,  calm  man 
of  remarkable  ability,  who,  moreover,  had  a  larger  army  at 
his  back  than  the  French. 

Contingencies  which  should  have  been  foreseen  naturally 
followed.     As  the  Treaty  of  Granada  had  not  clearly  defined 

the  exact  limits  of  the  possessions  to  be  divided 
Soain  between  the  two  kings,  disputes  arose.     Louis  XII 

had  appointed  Louis  of  Nemours  governor  and 
viceroy  of  Naples.  Gonzalo  di  Cordova  was  impatient.  He 
solved  the  difficulties  at  issue  by  abruptly  seizing  the  places  in 
dispute  and  driving  out  the  French  garrisons.  Relations 
between  the  two  governors  grew  increasingly  strained  and 
bitter,  and  eventually  Gonzalo  broke  of¥  all  communication 
with   Nemours.     Gradually   a   state  of   war   was   established, 

29 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

and  Louis  XII,  who  had  divided  the  state  of  Naples  with  Spain 
in  order  to  avoid  a  conflict,  found  that  he  had  only  succeeded 
in  provoking  it. 

He  sent  reinforcements,   2000   Swiss  and  10,000   Gascons. 
The  King  of  Spain  did  likewise — 2500   Germans  and  10,000 
Spaniards.     On   April    21,    1503,    a    battle   took 
Battles  01  place  at  Seminara.     The  French  were  under  the 

Seminara  and  ji!Ci.^j?AT_-  n         ij- 

Cerignola  command     of     Stuart     d  Aubigny.      Gonzalo    di 

1503.  Cordova  routed  him  completely,  and,  after  killing 

2000  of  his  men,  summoned  the  soldiers  from  all 
the  garrisons  and  marched  against  the  Duke  of  Nemours,  whom 
he  caught  at  Cerignola.  Nemours  was  beaten  and  slain  and 
the  disaster  of  the  French  army  was  complete.  At  that  very 
moment  Louis  XII  was  holding  negotiations  with  the  King 
of  Spain  ;  but  to  this  Gonzalo  paid  no  heed.  "  This  is  the 
second  time  he  has  deceived  me  !  "  the  King  of  France  exclaimed 
indignantly  of  Ferdinand  the  Catholic.  When  this  remark 
reached  the  latter 's  ears,  however,  he  merely  retorted  :  "  He 
lies,  the  sot !     I  have  deceived  him  ten  times  over  !  " 

Instead  of  learning  wisdom  by  this  cruel  lesson  Louis  XII 
merely  became  more  determined  than  ever,  and  sent  out  a 
fresh  relay  of  11,000  men  to  Naples.  Alexander  VI  had  just 
died  under  dramatic  circumstances,  possibly  poisoned  by  the 
drugged  food  he  had  himself  intended  for  others.  Georges 
d'Amboise  hastened  to  the  conclave  in  order,  if  possible,  to 
have  himself  nominated  Pope.  He  had  done  all  he  could  to 
prepare  the  way  for  this,  but  he  was  doomed  to  disappointment. 
Pius  III  was  elected  and,  on  his  death  three  weeks  later,  he  was 
succeeded  by  Giuliano  della  Rovere,  who  became  the  famous 
pontiff,  Julius  II,  the  patron  of  the  arts  and  the  Maecenas  of 
his  time,  and  withal  a  fiery,  bellicose,  and  martial  personage. 

The  11,000  men  sent  out  to  Naples  dragged  out  a  miserable 
existence.      Their    chiefs    were     quarrelling,    they    were    de- 
.  cimated  by  plague,  and  the  weather  was  abomin- 

Nanles  1504  ^t)le.  Hounded  down  by  the  able  Gonzalo  di 
Cordova,  they  were  gradually  demolished,  and 
finally,  on  January  1,  1504,  they  laid  down  their  arms  at 
Gaeta.  It  was  during  the  course  of  these  daily  combats  that  a 
knight,  whose  name  rings  through  the  centuries  as  an  example 
30 


"SMOKE    AND    GLORY"    OF    ITALY 

of  courage,  tenacity,  vigour,  and  heroism — the  famous  Bayard 
— won  great  renown.  Among  other  feats  of  valour  his  defence 
of  the  bridge  at  GarigHano  has  remained  famous  to  this  day. 

Louis  XII,  who  was  very  sensitive,   was  filled  with  con- 
sternation at  the  news  of  this  fresh  disaster.     In  fact  he  made 

himself  quite  ill  over  it.  His  health  had  long 
Ill-heaJth  oi      been  delicate  and  he  grew  visibly  thinner,  weaker, 

and  more  exhausted.  So  feeble  did  he  become 
that  he  seemed  on  the  point  of  death,  and  the  people  about 
him  were  filled  with  anxiety.  Anne  of  Brittany,  alarmed  for 
her  own  future,  thought  it  her  duty  to  take  precautions.  As 
Louis  XII  had  no  son,  the  heir  to  the  throne  was  a  distant 
cousin,  Francis,  Count  of  Angoulgme,  the  future  Francis  I, 
a  young  man  who  had  been  brought  up  at  Amboise  by  his 
mother,  Louise  of  Savoy,  an  extremely  strong-minded  woman, 
and  his  tutor,  Pierre  de  Rohan,  Marshal  de  Gie.  Anne  and 
Louise  very  naturally  detested  each  other  and  the  two 
households  of  Amboise  and  Blois  were  divided  by  feelings 
of  the  deepest  antipathy.  Anne  of  Brittany,  who  was  anxious, 
in  the  event  of  the  King's  death,  at  once  to  make  good  her 
escape  to  her  own  Duchy,  out  of  the  menacing  clutches  of  Louise 
of  Savoy  and  her  minions,  hastened  to  pack  all  her  belongings 
at  Blois — furniture,  tapestries,  and  works  of  art — into  boats, 
and  dispatched  them  down  the  Loire  to  Nantes.  Marshal  de 
Gie,  who  had  summoned  troops  to  the  side  of  the  Count  of 
Angouleme,  and  was  making  preparations  for  the  new  reign 
which  he  believed  to  be  imminent,  played  her  the  trick  of 
seizing  this  convoy,  and  the  rumour  was  spread  abroad  that 
he  was  actually  planning  the  arrest  of  Anne  the  moment  she 
was  left  a  widow.  But  at  this  juncture  Louis  XII  surprised 
the  whole  world  by  recovering  from  his  malady.  The  Queen, 
however,    whose    haughty    Breton    spirit    had    been    severely 

wounded  by  what  had  occurred,  demanded  the 
Trial  of  immediate  arrest  and  trial  of  Marshal  de  Gie  for 

S6"l504^^        high  treason.     Louis  XII  was  greatly  distressed 

by  this,  as  he  would  fain  have  avoided  placing 
an  old  servant  of  the  Crown  and  a  personal  friend  of  long 
standing  in  such  a  lamentable  predicament.  The  Queen, 
however,  stood  her  ground,  and  he  was  obliged  to  give  way. 

31 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

The  trial  of  Marshal  de  Gie  formed  one  of  the  most  important 
events  in  the  reign  of  Louis  XII.  It  stirred  public  opinion 
deeply,  and  its  progress  was  watched  by  the  people  with  pas- 
sionate interest.  It  dragged  on  for  a  long  time.  As  the  Par- 
liament of  Paris  seemed  favourable  to  the  accused,  whom  they 
restored  to  temporary  liberty,  Anne  had  the  Parisian  court 
disqualified — she  paid  the  enormous  costs  of  the  proceedings 
in  order  to  make  sure  of  her  revenge — and  the  trial  was  there- 
upon handed  over  to  the  Parliament  of  Toulouse,  whose  re- 
putation for  severity  was  notorious.  The  judges,  however, 
could  or  would  only  convict  the  prisoner  of  having  slightly 
overstepped  the  limits  of  his  authority,  and  made  a  few  wrongful 
exactions.  Gie  was  sentenced  to  be  deprived  of  the  tutorship 
of  the  Count  of  Angouleme,  to  be  suspended  for  five  years  from 
the  rank  of  Marshal,  and  to  be  exiled  from  Court,  which  he  was 
not  to  approach  within  a  radius  of  ten  miles.  He  retired  to 
his  magnificent  seat,  the  Chateau  du  Verger,  where  he  died  in 
1513,  and  Georges  dAmboise  was  popularly  accused  of  having 
supported  Anne  of  Brittany,  from  fear  and  jealousy  of  his 
rivalry. 

After  his  first  illness  in  1504  Louis  XII  had  a  relapse  in 
1505  which  proved  quite  as  serious.  But  he  once  again  re- 
covered, to  the  great  joy  of  his  subjects,  who  were  devoted  to 
their  excellent,  kindly,  and  sympathetic  monarch.  During  the 
hours  of  his  convalescence  the  King  pondered  over  many  things, 
amongst  others  the  question  of  his  will.  He  also  came  to  the 
conclusion  that  it  was  sheer  folly  to  persist  in  the  Neapolitan 
Betrothal  of  enterprise.  It  was  at  this  juncture,  moreover, 
the  Princess  that  he  made  up  his  mind  to  give  his  beloved 
Claude.  daughter,     Claude,     whom    he    worshipped    and 

who  was  "  his  only  treasure  and  solace  in  this  world," 
in  marriage  to  his  cousin  and  heir  presumptive,  the  Count 
of  Angouleme,  in  order  that  she  might  be  Queen  of 
France  and  keep  Brittany  in  the  possession  of  that  country. 
His  council,  to  whom  he  communicated  his  plan,  gave  it  their 
approval,  but  Anne  of  Brittany,  who  could  not  bear  any  mention 
of  the  House  of  Angouleme,  had  to  be  won  over.  It  was  her 
desire  to  marry  her  daughter  to  some  archduke,  who  would 
place  her  upon  the  imperial  throne  of  Germany  and  thus  preserve 
32 


*' SMOKE   AND   GLORY"   OF  ITALY 

for  Brittany  some  sort  of  independence,  which  she  would  lose 
if  she  were  constantly  bound  to  France.  As  she  advanced  in 
years  "  the  shrewd  Brittany  woman "  became  ever  more 
obstinate,  over-bearing,  and  self-sufficient.  She  only  gave  vague 
answers  to  the  entreaties  which  assailed  her  from  every 
quarter.  Louis  XII  grew  anxious.  He  wanted  a  more  formal 
understanding,  and  pressure  was  brought  to  bear  upon  the 
Queen  to  come  to  some  definite  decision.  In  obedience  to 
secret  orders  from  the  King,  deputations  from  various  towns 
came  to  him  at  Tours,  and  assembling  in  a  suppliant  mass, 
solemnly  begged  him  to  proceed  to  the  betrothal  of  Claude 
and  Francis.  At  the  sight  of  their  sovereign  sitting  in  his 
arm-chair,  bowed  with  sickness,  pale  and  thin,  and  holding 
himself  up  with  difficulty,  the  worthy  envoys  began  to  weep 
and  called  him  the  "  father  of  his  people."  In  accordance  with  a 
pre-arranged  plan,  the  council,  upon  being  consulted,  returned 
a  favourable  reply.  The  King  declared  the  petition  just  and 
reasonable,  and  gave  his  royal  word  that  the  betrothal  should 
take  place  forthwith.  Anne  of  Brittany  thus  had  her  hand 
forced.  The  betrothal  followed  and  the  whole  kingdom  indulged 
in  great  rejoicings.  But  Italy,  alas,  was  destined  to  cast  a  gloom 
over  it  once  more  ! 

A  proud  and  haughty  city,  selfish  and  cynical,  who  from 
the  inaccessible  fastnesses  of  her  great  lagoons  seemed  to  look 
The  League  of  forth  with  disdainful  eyes  upon  the  rest  of  the 
Cambray,  1508.  world,  the  Republic  of  Venice  was  held  in  detesta- 
tion by  the  other  States  of  Italy.  She  had  carved  out 
for  herself  a  fairly  wide  domain  in  the  peninsula  by  filching 
from  the  Emperor  territory  to  the  north  near  the  Alps, 
from  the  Pope  lands  to  the  south  near  the  Apennines,  and 
on  the  east,  towards  the  Adda,  by  encroachments  on  the 
State  of  Milan.  The  chief  sufferer  from  these  amputations  was 
Julius  II,  who  made  up  his  mind  to  form  a  league  against  Venice 
with  the  object  of  forcing  her  to  give  back  the  lands  she  had 
stolen.  He  sent  invitations  to  Louis  XII,  the  Emperor 
Maximilian,  the  King  of  Spain  and  the  King  of  England  to 
join  him.  Louis  XII,  to  whom  the  deceit,  treachery,  and 
violence  of  the  Republic  were  described,  gave  his  consent. 
Spain  and  England,  neither  of  whom  had  much  to  gain  or  lose, 

c  33 


CENTURY    OF   THE    RENAISSANCE 

also  acquiesced,  and  the  allies  formed  at  Cambray  the  League 
which  bears  that  name  (1508).  It  was  decided  to  send  an 
army  against  Venice.  But  whose  army  ?  Clearly  Louis  XII 
was  the  only  signatory  who  was  in  a  position  to  carry  out  any 
efficacious  military  stroke.  In  vain  did  the  faithful  jfitienne 
Poncher  raise  his  voice  in  the  council  against  any  such  futile 
and  suicidal  policy,  pointing  out  that  the  other  allies  were 
useless,  and  that  Louis  XII  would  be  exerting  himself  for  their 
benefit  alone,  merely  to  be  betrayed  by  them  in  the  end.  Georges 
d'Amboise  was  enthusiastically  in  favour  of  the  expedition, 
for  some  reason  which  is  not  very  clear,  and  war  was  declared 
against  Venice. 

A  French  army  of  some  40,000  men  was  collected  in  the 
State  of  Milan  under  the  command  of  Chaumont  dAmboise. 
Battle  of  The  Venetians  placed  a  similar  number  in  the 

Agnadello,  field,  headed  by  Petigliano  and  Alviane. 
1509.  Louis   XII   rode   forth   on    horseback   to   watch 

his  troops  cross  the  Adda  with  drums  beating.  The  two 
armies  met  at  Agnadello  on  May  14,  1509.  In  spite  of  the  fact 
that  the  advance  on  the  hostile  forces  had  been  carried  out 
somewhat  clumsily,  the  attack  was  made  in  perfect  order, 
and  notwithstanding  the  deadly  fire  of  the  Venetian  artillery, 
which  ravaged  the  French  columns,  the  latter,  in  a  vigorous 
onslaught,  broke  through  the  ranks  of  their  adversaries  and 
put  them  to  flight.  It  was  a  brilliant  victory.  Julius  II 
seized  the  opportunity  to  get  back  Ravenna,  Faenza,  and  Imola 
from  Venice.  The  Emperor  Maximilian,  anxious  to  have  a 
share  of  the  spoil,  appropriated  Vicenza,  Padua,  Verona,  and 
Treviso,  whilst  Louis  XII  occupied  the  Ghiara  dAdda,  Brescia, 
Cremona  and  Bergamo.  Thereupon  the  incident  was  regarded 
as  closed.  The  King  of  France  disbanded  his  army,  which  was 
already  decimated  by  pestilence  and  overcome  by  the  excessive 
heat.  The  Pope,  who  had  got  what  he  wanted,  made  overtures 
of  peace  to  the  Venetians  and  offered  to  absolve  them  from 
the  excommunication  which  he  had  hurled  against  them,  a 
proposal  which,  like  sensible  people,  they  hastened  to  accept. 
And  thus,  after  having  formed  a  league  against  Venice,  in  order 
to  make  Louis  XII  enter  the  field,  Julius  II  withdrew  from 
it  the  moment  he  had  obtained  all  he  could  from  it.  The  ever- 
34 


"SMOKE    AND    GLORY"    OF    ITALY 

changing,  restless  Maximilian,  for  his  part,  had  also  made  good 
his  escape. 

The  Venetians,  however,  raised  another  army,  and  at  last, 
when  it  was  too  late,  Louis  XII  realized  that  Etienne  Poncher 
had  been  right  and  that  the  whole  weight  of  the  conflict  was 
destined  to  fall  on  his  shoulders  alone.  His  friend.  Cardinal 
d'Amboise,  had  died  on  May  25, 1510,  of  some  internal  complaint 
aggravated  by  gout.  He  was  only  fifty  at  the  time  of  his  death, 
and  his  loss  was  a  great  sorrow  to  the  King. 

The  Pope,  instead  of  being  an  ally,  was  now  neutral,  and 
it  was  not  long  before  this  attitude  was  changed  to  one  of  avowed 
Holv  Alliance  hostility.  He  declared,  whether  sincerely  or  not, 
against  that  the  ambition  of  the  King  of  France  was  a 

Louis  XII,  menace  to  Italy,  which  stood  in  danger  of  a  general 

1511.  invasion    by    this    foreigner,    and    preached  the 

necessity  of  a  Holy  War.  Louis  XII's  entreaties  and  threats 
were  alike  vain ;  the  bellicose  pontiiT  in  alliance  with  Venice 
prepared  for  hostilities.  The  King  of  France  tried  the 
expedient  of  summoning  a  Council  of  the  French  Church 
to  meet  at  Tours,  in  order  to  implore  the  Pope  to  put  an  end  to 
this  sacrilegious  conflict,  but  the  Pope  turned  a  deaf  ear  to  all 
their  remonstrances.  Europe  was  terrified  at  the  idea  of  a  war 
against  the  sovereign  pontiff,  and  Anne  of  Brittany,  who  was 
extremely  pious,  was  in  a  state  of  consternation.  Something 
had  to  be  done.  The  Marquis  of  Mantua,  the  commander-in-chief 
of  the  papal  forces,  who  had  been  given  the  title  of  Gonfalonier 
of  the  Church,  was  advancing  in  the  direction  of  Ferrara,  attack- 
ing and  seizing  places  on  his  march.  Chaumont  dAmboise, 
thereupon  mobilized  his  troops,  retook  the  conquered  towns, 
and  marched  upon  Bologna,  the  headquarters  of  Julius  II.  The 
news  that  the  Venetian  army  was  advancing  on  his  rear  obliged 
him  to  fall  back.  Thereupon  the  Pope  excommunicated  Chau- 
mont and  came  in  person  to  lay  siege  to  the  little  town  of  Miran- 
dola.  As  he  was  making  his  exit  from  Bologna,  he  was  surprised 
by  an  ambuscade  and  almost  captured  by  Bayard,  with  the 
result  that  "  he  shook  with  fever  the  whole  day  from  the  great 
alarm  he  had  felt."  Aged  as  he  was,  however,  he  was  to  be 
seen  riding  out  on  horseback  to  superintend  the  attack  on 
Mirandola,  giving  orders  as  to  the  position  of  the  batteries 

35 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

and  inspecting  the  outposts.  As  soon  as  a  breach  had  been  made 
the  town  surrendered,  and  JuHus  II  entered  in  state  through 
a  gap  in  the  walls. 

On  the  death  of  Chaumont  dAmboise,  the  French  army  was 
placed  under  the  command  of  Gaston  de  Foix,  Duke  of  Nemours, 
Battle  of  ^  young  prince  of  twenty  who  had  already  won 

Ravenna,  distinction  by  great  valour.    Louis  XII  sent  out 

1512.  reinforcements  and  the  French  once  more  took 

the  offensive.  After  the  capture  of  Bologna  they  offered  to 
make  peace  with  the  Pope,  but  the  latter,  who  was  a 
prey  to  "  obstinacy,  hatred,  and  contempt,"  refused  to  come 
to  terms.  He  fled  to  Rome,  where  he  joined  forces  with 
the  Aragonese  princes  of  Naples,  and  then  marched  back 
upon  Gaston  de  Foix,  who,  with  18,000  infantry,  1600 
men-at-arms,  and  eighty  cannon  was  prepared  to  offer  him 
a  stout  resistance.  The  two  armies  met  at  Ravenna  (1512) 
where  a  hotly  contested  fight  took  place.  Finally  "  the 
clerics  and  Spaniards  "  as  they  were  called,  were  worsted, 
but,  unfortunately,  in  a  final  charge  of  minor  importance, 
Gaston,  carried  away  by  his  temerity,  was  wounded  in  the 
side  by  a  lance  and  killed.  The  victory  was  a  brilliant  one, 
but  it  had  been  bought  at  a  heavy  price.  La  Palice  then  took 
over  the  command  of  the  French  troops. 

To  make  matters  worse  this  victory  bore  no  fruit.  On 
the  contrary,  it  was  the  signal  for  complete  disaster.  After 
Evacuation  complicated  negotiations,  the  Venetians,  who 
of  Italy.  declared  that  the  King  of  France  must  be  driven 

out  once  and  for  all,  succeeded  in  rousing  the  interest  of  the 
Swiss,  of  Maximilian,  and  of  the  King  of  England  in  the  fate 
of  Italy.  The  League  of  Cambray  was  thus  turned  against 
Louis  XII.  Three  armies  marched  forth  against  La  Palice, 
who,  realizing  the  impossibility  of  showing  fight  in  such 
circumstances,  did  not  even  attempt  to  hold  his  ground,  but 
beat  a  retreat,  evacuating  everything,  including  the  city  and 
State  of  Milan.  In  a  few  short  days  that  costly  and  hard- 
won  conquest  crumbled  away  and  Maximilian  Sforza,  a  son 
of  Ludovico  Sforza,  who  had  been  brought  to  light,  ascended 
the  ducal  throne  of  his  father.  i>G 

Julius  11  was  triumphant.  He  excommunicated  the  King 
86 


-SMOKE    AND    GLORY"   OF   ITALY 

of  France  and  placed  his  kingdom  under  an  interdict.  This 
time  Louis  XII  reaUzed  that  he  was  beaten.  Anne  of 
France  and  Brittany  now  proposed  to  her  husband  that  she 
the  Papacy.  should  approach  the  Pope  in  person.  Harrowed 
by  the  conflict  which  the  King  persisted  in  sustaining 
against  the  sovereign  pontiff,  she  had,  after  giving  birth 
to  another  child  who  did  not  live,  remained  in  a  state  of 
pining  sickness  and  depression.  Her  health  was  giving  way 
and  preoccupations  for  the  future  filled  her  mind.  In 
spite  of  the  betrothal  of  her  daughter  Claude  to  Francis 
of  Angouleme,  she  still  nursed  the  hope  of  marrying  her  to  the 
Austrian  Archduke,  a  plan  which  peace  alone  would  allow  her 
to  set  on  foot.  She  accordingly  offered  her  services  to  bring 
pressure  to  bear  upon  Julius  II.  Weary  of  the  whole  matter, 
Louis  XII  allowed  her  to  have  her  way.  Julius  II  was  im- 
movable. However,  seized  by  a  slow  fever,  he  died  on 
January  21,  1513,  at  the  age  of  seventy.  He  was  succeeded 
by  a  young  cardinal  of  thirty-seven,  Giovanni  de'  Medici,  who 
became  the  celebrated  Leo  X,  a  more  amenable  character 
with  whom  to  carry  on  negotiations.  At  first  he  declared 
that  he  would  remain  neutral,  but  agreed  to  receive  Claude 
de  Seyssel  and  Claude  de  Forbin,  Louis  XII's  ambassadors, 
at  Rome.  His  next  step  was  to  annul  the  decrees  against 
the  King  of  France.  In  the  direction  of  the  Holy  City  the 
horizon  was  clearing. 

But  elsewhere  it  remained  dark  and  lowering.  Henry  VIII, 
King  of  England,  had  landed  in  France  with  an  army,  and 
Difficulties  meeting  the  French  force  at  Guinegate,  had 
with  England,  routed  it  so  completely  that  the  vanquished 
Austria,  and  troops  had  fled  in  hot  haste  and  were  obliged 
Switzerland.  ^q  bear  the  shame  of  hearing  the  encounter  dubbed 
the  Battle  of  Spurs.  Louis  XII  hastened  to  Amiens  to 
guard  the  frontier.  But  the  Emperor,  on  his  side,  was 
threatening  to  invade  Burgundy,  and  the  Swiss  were  making 
a  deliberate  attack.  It  was  a  critical  and  anxious  moment. 
Fortunately  for  the  King  of  France  the  difficulty  solved  itself 
owing  to  the  lack  of  unity  among  the  enemy.  The  Swiss  con- 
sented to  retire,  upon  securing  a  treaty  signed  by  La  Tremoille, 
the  terms  of  which  were  so  onerous  for  Louis  XII  that  he 

37 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

subsequently  refused  to  ratify  it.  But  the  essential  point  had 
been  gained,  inasmuch  as  the  Swiss  had  left  the  country.  Maxi- 
milian, as  usual,  vanished  into  space.  Henry  VIII,  angry 
at  his  desertion,  also  retreated,  and  Louis  XII  finally  made  peace 
with  him.  The  Pope  showed  himself  disposed  to  restore  tran- 
quillity to  Italy  on  condition  that  the  King  of  France  renounced 
all  claims  upon  the  State  of  Milan.  Louis  XII  was  obliged 
to  reconcile  himself  to  the  distasteful  idea,  but  asked,  in  return, 
to  be  allowed  to  give  that  state  as  a  dowry  to  his  second  daughter 
Renee,  whom  he  proposed  to  marry  to  a  son  of  the  King  of 
Spain.  The  King  of  Spain,  thus  allowed  to  share  the  spoils, 
became  reconciled  with  France.  Matters  gradually  calmed 
down,  and  peace  was  at  last  restored  at  the  cost  of  the  final 
shipwreck  of  all  Louis  XII's  plans  of  conquest  in  Italy. 

The  poor  King  went  into  melancholy  retirement  at  Blois, 
the  home  in  which  he  had  spent  the  first  happy  years  of  his 
Louis  XII  life,  and  in  which  he  was  now  to  pass  his  last 

at  Blois.  sad  hours,  the  old  house   "  beneath  whose  roof 

his  mother  and  father  had  dwelt,  his  birthplace  and  the 
citadel  of  Kings !  "  As  he  could  not  endure  the  old  feudal 
manor  house,  a  massive  and  imposing  edifice,  the  original 
comfortless  and  gloomy  fortress,  he  had  had  the  east  wing 
pulled  down  and  rebuilt  in  the  new  style.  It  was  the  fashion 
among  the  great  folk  of  this  period  to  raise  buildings  of  regular 
appearance  well  open  to  the  sun,  instead  of  shutting  themselves 
up,  as  they  had  done  before,  inside  the  dark  towers  of  defence 
characteristic  of  the  castles  of  the  fifteenth  century.  With 
their  high  roofs  gilt  at  the  extremities,  dormer  windows  encased  in 
graceful  sculpture,  pierced  galleries,  window-frames  with  mould- 
ings simple  but  suitable  in  design,  the  whole  still  in  the  Gothic 
style  with  gables  and  rosettes,  after  the  manner  of  the  old  cathe- 
drals, but  novel  in  virtue  of  the  high  artistic  taste  displayed,  the 
new  buildings  were  eminently  pleasing  to  the  eye.  Pierre 
de  Rohan,  Marshal  de  Gie,  had  built  the  Chateau  du  Verger  ; 
Georges  d'Amboise,  who  loved  magnificence,  was  responsible 
for  the  Courts  of  Justice  at  Rouen,  as  well  as  the  Archbishop's 
Palace  and  the  Chateau  Gaillon,  one  of  the  most  remarkable 
monuments  of  the  period,  admirable  alike  for  the  elegance 
and  variety  of  its  structure.  At  his  instigation  Louis  XII 
38 


"SMOKE   AND    GLORY"    OF    ITALY 

had  also  added  the  Court  of  the  Exchequer  to  the  Law  Courts 
in  the  French  capital  and  carried  on  the  constructions  at  Amboise 
begun  by  Charles  VIII.  Blois  was  built  on  a  similar  principle, 
and  the  Louis  XII  wing  is  a  charming  edifice,  thoroughly- 
French  in  its  taste,  its  proportions,  its  restraint  and  the  sobriety 
of  its  decoration.  The  names  of  some  of  the  workmen  have 
been  discovered,  but  the  architect  remains  unknown  to  this 
day.  It  is  possible  that  he  never  existed,  and  that  master 
masons  of  the  district,  who  were  accustomed  to  the  building 
of  similar  structures  in  those  parts,  carried  out  a  particularly 
finished  and  skilful  piece  of  work  for  the  King.  Louis  XII 
might  possibly  have  reconstructed  the  whole  of  Blois  Castle  in 
the  same  style  had  not  time  and  means  failed  him.  His  emblem, 
a  porcupine  with  bristling  quills,  with  the  device  Cominus  ac 
eminus  "  from  far  and  near  "  (an  allusion  to  the  belief  of  the 
time  that  the  porcupine  shoots  out  its  quills  in  self-defence) 
marks  the  buildings  for  which  this  prince  was  responsible. 

And  here  in  the  "  new  dwelling  "  of  Blois,  as  it  was  called, 
Loius  XII  passed  his  last  days  in  the  company  of  Queen  Anne, 
in  loving  and  peaceful  unity.  As  in  the  time  of  Charles  VIII 
the  rich  Brittany  heiress  had  adorned  the  royal  home  with  her 
works  of  art.  On  its  walls  she  had  hung  rich  "  storied  "  tapes- 
tries. The  great  hall  had  a  hanging  representing  the  Fall  of 
Troy ;  in  the  "  King's  Dining-room "  was  one  called  "  The 
Battle  of  Formigny."  The  room  of  the  little  Princess  Claude 
was  adorned  with  pastoral  scenes,  "  little  inscriptions  "  and 
tiny  figures.  In  the  Queen's  room  were  illustrations  of  tales  and 
battles  ;  in  the  bedroom  extraordinary  birds  and  beasts  from 
foreign  climes.  Everywhere  she  placed  a  profusion  of  furni- 
ture and  draperies,  cloth  of  gold  mantelpiece-covers,  beds 
"  hung  with  cloth  of  gold  "  and  adorned  with  canopies  of  crimson 
or  white  damask  ;  silver  chandeliers  supported  by  silver  chains  ; 
red  and  yellow  tafTetas  curtains ;  sideboards  draped  with 
cloth  of  gold ;  stools  to  sit  upon  covered  in  velvet  or 
"checkers;"  "carved  and  gilded  chairs  from  Italy."  The 
floors  were  covered  by  carpets  "  so  thickly  woven  that  the 
boards  were  entirely  hidden,"  and  a  glow  of  luxury  prevailed 
beneath  the  thick  low  beams,  a  scintillating  play  of  gold  and 
colour  set  in  a  frame  of  intimate  peace. 

39 


CENTURY    OF   THE    RENAISSANCE 

Here  Anne  of  Brittany  dwelt  surrounded  by  her  ladies-in- 
waiting,  working  at  her  distaff  or  sewing,  whilst  a  secretary 
read  aloud  from  the  pages  of  romance  or  history,  or  a  poet — 
some  favourite  or  pensioner  of  hers,  such  as  Jean  Marot  or 
Jean  Meschinot — recited  verses,  to  which  she  listened  more 
because  it  was  the  fashion  than  because  she  liked  them,  for 
she  was  not  a  particularly  good  judge  of  literature.  Or  else, 
some  court  jester,  like  Triboulet,  a  misshapen  creature,  with 
goggle  eyes,  big  nose  and  narrow  brow,  would  entertain  them 
with  his  insolent  quips  and  buffooneries.  All  the  denizens 
of  the  royal  Court,  ladies-in-waiting,  maids-of-honour,  squires 
and  knights,  surrounded  her  with  respectful  attention.  She 
had  the  cold  imposing  presence  of  a  great  lady,  but  as  soon 
as  she  was  addressed,  her  sweetness  and  kindliness  at  once 
aroused  sympathy.  People  were  struck  by  her  goodness  and 
left  her  bewitched  by  her  charm.  The  populace — or  at  all 
events  that  of  France,  if  not  the  Bretons,  whose  hearts  she 
had  won  by  her  liberality — only  knew  her  self-willed  character 
and  her  rancorous  spirit,  and  she  was  but  little  loved  by  them. 
The  ministers  were  frequently  irritated  by  her  dictatorial 
airs  and  by  the  commands  which  she  took  upon  herself  to  send 
them  with  the  high-handed  comment :  "  Unknown  to  the  King." 
"  Be  patient,"  Louis  XII  would  observe  with  a  smile,  when 
they  came  to  him  with  complaints  about  her.  But  her  imme- 
diate circle  adored  her. 

Death  came  to  her  swiftly.  Ever  since  the  birth  of  her 
last  child,  the  poor  woman  had  been  failing.  Persistent  weak- 
Death  of  ^^^^  ^^^  been  wearing  away  her  strength  as  if 
Anne  of  some  mysterious  malady  were  gradually  under- 
Brittany,  1514.  mining  her.  There  was  some  talk  of  gravel.  On 
December  31,  1513,  she  was  seized  with  fever,  and  ten 
days  later,  on  January  9,  1514,  she  died.  She  was  only 
thirty-eight,  and  her  loss  was  the  occasion  of  universal 
mourning.  The  whole  Court  was  in  tears  ;  even  the  people 
were  moved  and  talked  of  nothing  but  the  "noble  lady's" 
generosity,  and  the  King,  for  his  part,  was  in  the  depths  of 
despair.  Rarely  in  the  course  of  history  has  the  death  of  a 
Queen  been  the  cause  of  such  wide-spread  grief.  She  was 
buried  with  great  solemnity  at  Saint  Denis.  A  long  funeral 
40 


"SMOKE   AND   GLORY"    OF   ITALY 

procession  accompanied  her  remains  on  their  way  from  Blois 
to  Paris,  and  the  crowds  of  sorrowing  people  who  thronged 
round  it  bore  witness  to  the  mourning  in  which  the  whole  nation 
was  plunged. 

The  greatness  of  his  grief  made  Louis  XII  leave  Blois,  which 
had  now  become  odious  to  him  on  account  of  the  memories 
Marriage  of  ^*  revived.  He  went  to  Saint-Germain-en- 
the  Princess  Laye,  another  old  mediaeval  castle,  and  to 
Claude.  Vincennes,  thoroughly  depressed  and  indifferent 

to  everything,  for  he  had  received  a  blow  from  which  he 
was  destined  never  to  recover.  It  was  pointed  out  to  him 
that  as  he  had  no  heir  except  the  young  Count  of  Angou- 
leme,  it  was  now  perhaps  time  to  consummate  the  marriage 
of  that  prince  with  his  daughter,  Claude,  as  at  present  the 
couple  were  merely  betrothed.  He  accepted  the  advice  without 
demur,  and  the  ceremony  took  place  in  the  deepest  gloom  in 
the  chapel  of  Saint-Germain  (still  in  existence)  on  May  18, 
1514.  The  congregation  was  all  in  black  and  the  bride  was 
in  tears. 

Those  who  surrounded  Louis  XII,  arguing  that  as  he  was 
only  fifty-two,  an  age  at  which  it  is  possible  for  a  man  to  marry 
Louis  XII's  again  and  have  children,  and  thinking  that  the 
Marriage  with  creation  of  a  new  home  would  rouse  the  King 
Henry  VIII's  from  the  fatal  grief  which  overwhelmed  him. 
Sister.  conceived  the  idea  of  a  third  marriage  for  him. 

The  King  of  Aragon,  who  at  this  juncture  was  doing  his 
best  to  secure  a  settled  peace  between  England  and  France, 
suggested  that  this  should  be  sealed  by  a  marriage  between 
Louis  XII  and  Henry  VIII's  sister,  Mary,  a  strapping  young 
Englishwoman,  a  ''^  haquenee^^  as  the  disapproving  populace 
dubbed  her.  Henry  VIII  gave  his  consent,  and  Louis  XII, 
worn  and  feeble,  and  moved,  perhaps,  by  some  vague  desire 
of  having  an  heir,  or  of  escaping  from  his  melancholy,  gave 
way.  The  marriage  was  celebrated  without  pomp  or  show 
of  any  kind. 

But  the  King's  health  was  ruined.  He  grew  daily  thinner 
and  more  delicate ;  broken  down  by  grief  and  sickness, 
his  constitution  had  lost  all  power  of  resistance.  His  young 
Queen,    full   of  delight   at  her  new  greatness,    insisted   upon 

41 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

making  Louis  XII  lead  a  life  of  gaiety.  The  poor  King  found 
himself  obliged  to  change  all  his  habits.  He  had  to  go  to 
Death  o!  ^^^  ^^*^'  ^^*  ^  great  deal  at  all  sorts  of  hours, 

Louis  XII,  and  also,  as  Fleurange  I'Aventureux  says  in  his 

1515.  Memoires,  act    the    part  of  the    "loving  spouse 

to  his  wife."  He  was  seized  by  a  violent  attack  of  fever 
aggravated  by  dysentery,  and  on  January  1,  1515,  he  passed 
away  in  the  Hotel  des  Tournelles  in  Paris,  leaving  the  throne 
of  France  as  a  New  Year's  gift  to  his  successor. 

Sources.  The  very  important  work  by  H.  Hauser,  Les^  Sources  de 
Vhistoire  de  France,  XVF  sUcle,  1906  ;  Lcttres  de  Charles  VIII,  ed.  Pelicier 
and  B.  de  Mandrot,  1898  ;  Octavien  de  Saint  Gelais  and  Andre  de  la  Vigne, 
Le  Vergier  dlionneur  in  Godefroy's  Hist,  de  Charles  VIII,  1684  ;  Robert 
Gaguin,  Compendium  de  origine  et  gestis  Francorum,  1586  ;  Comines, 
Mdmoires,  ed.  B.  de  Mandrot,  1901  ;  Brantome,  CEuvres  completes,  ed. 
Lalanne  ;  Marino  Sanuto,  Diarii,  vol.  i  to  xxvi,  1879  ;  Burchard,  Diarium, 
ed.  Thuasne,  1883  ;  J.  Masselin,  Journal  des  Stats  gdndraux  en  1484,  1835  ; 
Jean  d'Auton,  Chronique  de  Louis  XII,  ed.  Maulde  la  Clavi^re,  1889  ; 
Claude  de  Seyssel,  Hist,  singuliire  du  roi  Louis  XII  in  Th.  Godefroy's 
Hist,  de  Louis  XII,  1615 ;  Fleurange  I'Aventureux,  Mdmoires,  ed. 
Michaud  and  Poujoulat ;  Histoire  du  geniil  seigneur  de  Bay  art  par  le  Loyal 
Serviteur,  ed.  Roman  1878  ;  Procddures  politiquesdurigne  de  Louis  XII,  ed 
De  Maulde,  1885 ;  Lettres  de  Louis  XII  et  du  cardinal  d'Amboise, 
1712. 

Works.  Du  Cherrier,  Histoire  de  Charles  VIII,  1871  ;  P.  Pelicier, 
Essai  sur  le  gouvernement  de  la  dame  de  Beaujeu,  1882  ;  Fr.  Delaborde, 
Expedition  de  Charles  VIII  en  Italic,  1888  ;  P.  van  der  Haeghen,  Examen 
du  droit  de  Charles  VIII  sur  Naples  {Rev.  hist.  1885)  ;  Miintz,  La  Renais- 
sance en  Italic  et  en  France  ci  Vipoque  de  Charles  VIII,  1885  ;  De  Boislisle, 
Notice  hiographique  et  historique  sur  Stienne  de  Vesc  (Annulaire-bullet.  de 
la  Soc.  de  Vhist.  de  France,  1878-1883) ;  De  Maulde,  Histoire  de  Louis  XII, 
1889  ;  Le  Roux  de  Lincy,  Vie  de  la  Reine  Anne  de  Bretagne,  1860  ;  and 
Details  sur  la  vie  privie  d'Anne  de  Bretagne,  1850  ;  Legendre,  Vie  du 
cardinal  d'Amboise,  1725  ;  L.-G.  Pelissier,  Louis  XII  et  Ludomc  Sforza, 
1896  ;  Kohler,  Les  Suisses  dans  les  guerres  d'ltalie  de  1506  a  1512,  1897. 


42 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  KING  AND  THE  EMPEROR 

Francis  I,  1515-1547.  Conquest  of  the  Duchy  of  Milan  and  the 
victory  of   Marignano,  1515  ;  the  Concordat  of  Bologna,  1516. 
Candidature  of  Francis  I  for  the  Imperial  Throne  ;  election  of 
Charles  V,  1519.   Conflict  between  the  King  of  France  and  the 
Emperor.  Interview  with  Henry  VIII  on  the  Field  of  the  Cloth  of 
Gold,  1520.  The  hostilities  of  1521  ;  defeat  of  Lautrec  in  Italy  at 
the  Bicocca,  1522.  Constable  Bourbon's  treachery,  1523.   Defeat 
of  Bonnivet  in  Italy  at  Rebecco  and  Romagnano,  1524  :  invasion 
of  Provence  by  Charles  V  and  his  retreat.   Descent  of  Francis  I 
into  Italy  and  the  disaster  of  Pavia,  1525.  The  captivity  of  the 
King  of  France  and  the  Treaty  of  Madrid,  1526.  The  Holy  League 
of  Cognac.  Sack  of  Rome  by  the  Emperor's  soldiers  under  Charles 
of  Bourbon,  1527.  Peace  of  Cambray,  1529.  Fresh  preparations  for 
war  on  the  part  of  Francis  land  his  alliance  with  the  Turks.  Re- 
opening of  hostilities,   1535.     Second  invasion  of  Provence  by 
Charles  V  and  his  retreat,  1536.    Truce  of  Mon^on,  1537  ;  fresh 
rupture,  1544  ;  descent  into  Italy  and  victory  of  the  Due  d'Enghien 
at  Cerisola.  Treaty  of  Crepy,  1544.  Death  of  Francis  I,  1547. 
De  sa  beaut  e  il  est  blanc  et  vermeil 
Les  cheveux  bruns,  de  grande  et  belle  taille ; 
En  terre  il  est,  comme  au  ciel  le  soleil. 
Hardi,  vaillant,  sage  et  preux  en  bataille  ; 
II  est  b^nin,  doux,  humble  en  sa  grandeur, 
Fort  et  puissant,  et  plein  de  patience.* 

THIS  portrait  of  Francis  I,  drawn  by  his  charming  sister, 
Margaret   of   Navarre,  is   on  the  whole  accurate.     He 
was  very  tall  and  strong,  with  broad,  powerful  shoulders 
— though  rather  thin  in  the  leg — his  face  was  broad  and  massive, 

*  White  and  rose  is  he  in  his  loveliness. 

With  his  brown  hair  and  stature  fair  and  tall ; 
As  the  sun  in  the  heavens,  he  seems  on  earth  ; 
Bold,  full  of  valour  and  most  skilled  in  war, 
Humble  and  sweetly  kind  despite  his  strength  ; 
Steadfast  endurance  his  and  kingly  power. 

43 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

the  features  fine  enough,  though  the  nose  was  somewhat  too 
aquiHne ;  his  hair  showed  black  upon  a  white  skin  and 
Francis  I,  his   expression   was   frank   and   straightforward. 

1515-1547.  Altogether  the  new  king  of  twenty  who  succeeded 
the  gaunt  and  cadaverous  Louis  XII  deserved  his  prede- 
cessor's compliment  when  the  latter  exclaimed,  "  What  a  fine 
young  gallant  !  "  He  was  above  all  a  fascinating  young 
prince,  full  of  life  and  spirits,  vigorous,  imprudent,  frivolous, 
lavish,  and  witty.  All  with  whom  he  came  in  contact  were 
delighted  with  him,  he  scattered  money  right  and  left  without 
a  thought,  he  was  chivalrous,  generous  and  full  of  the  joy  of 
life — a  true  Frenchman  with  the  best  qualities  and  the  worst 
faults  of  his  race.  "  All  our  work  is  useless,  "  Louis  XII  used 
to  say,  shaking  his  head,  "  that  great  youngster  will  spoil 
it  all !  " 

Francis  had  been  brought  up  at  Cognac  and  at  Amboise 
by  two  women  who  worshipped  him — his  mother,  Louise  of 
Education  o!  Savoy  and  his  sister  Margaret,  who  was  his 
Francis  I.  senior  by  two  years.     Louise  of  Savoy,   whose 

husband,  Charles  of  Angouleme,  had  died  and  left  her  a 
widow  at  the  age  of  eighteen,  had  surrounded  her  son  during 
the  time  of  his  tutelage  with  all  the  joys  that  an  easygoing 
and  inexperienced  character  could  provide.  The  child  had 
been  the  pride  of  her  heart  and  she  had  spoilt  him.  In 
the  kindly  atmosphere  of  Louise's  little  Court,  surroimded  by 
art,  poetry  and  festivals,  the  young  prince  had  developed 
his  gracious  and  light-hearted  nature.  His  sister,  Margaret, 
had  played  no  small  part  in  his  education.  Herself  extremely 
bright,  intelligent  and  well-read, — "no  bread-and-butter-miss," 
according  to  Brantome — witty,  not  a  very  great  stickler  for 
morality,  with  an  extremely  independent  spirit,  but  otherwise 
a  superior  woman  worthy  of  respect,  she  had  surrounded  her 
brother,  who  was  the  passion  of  her  life,  with  tender  devotion. 
In  this  atmosphere  of  affection  Francis  grew  up.  He  was 
allowed  to  do  exactly  as  he  pleased.  Twenty  times  over, 
carried  away  during  some  violent  exploit  while  hunting  or 
riding,  he  narrowly  escaped  death.  He  studied  little  or  not  at 
all,  read  romances  of  chivalry,  led  the  gay  life  of  a  rich  young 
man,  wrote  verses,  had  adventures  and  came  into  power  with 
44 


THE    KING    AND    THE    EMPEROR 

everything  calculated  to  make  him  a  magnificent  monarch, 
a  Maecenas  of  taste,  and  a  thoroughly  bad  politician.  With 
his  mother  and  sister  he  always  remained  on  very  good 
terms,  and  he  was  also  extremely  fond  of  his  wife,  Claude, 
the  daughter  of  Louis  XII.  She  was  a  good,  modest  and 
sensible  woman,  not  uncomely  in  face,  but  short  and  fat 
and  slightly  lame.  In  theory,  if  not  in  practice,  Francis  was 
faithful  to  this  "  good  lady  of  honest  and  upright  life,"  and 
when,  in  1524,  after  bearing  him  seven  children,  she  died,  worn 
out  with  travail,  at  the  age  of  twenty-five,  his  grief  was  sincere. 
Queen  Claude  is  now  remembered  only  on  account  of  the  plums 
that  bear  her  name. 

One  day  when  Francis  was  talking  with  his  friends  at 
Amboise,  he  amused  himself  by  listening  to  their  jesting  enum- 
Advisers  o!  eration  of  the  Crown  offices  it  would  be  the  dream 
Francis  I.  of  their  ambition  to  fill.     As  soon  as  he  became 

King,  the  first  step  he  took  was  to  gratify  each  man's  desire. 
Arthur  de  Gouffier,  Sieur  de  Boissy,  was  made  Lord  High 
Steward  of  France,  and  his  brother,  Bonnivet,  High  Admiral, 
whilst  Anne  de  Montmorency  was  destined  to  become 
Constable.  Naturally  generous,  Francis  distributed  money 
and  honours  with  a  lavish  hand.  His  mother  was  given  the 
Duchy  of  Anjou  and  Maine  ;  his  brother-in-law,  the  Duke  of 
Alengon,  Margaret's  husband,  was  made  Duke  of  Berry  and 
Governor  of  Normandy.  Charles  of  Bourbon  received  the 
sword  of  Constable  and  the  Governorship  of  Languedoc,  whilst 
Lautrec  and  La  Palice  were  appointed  Marshals  of  France. 
The  post  of  Chancellor  was  vacant,  and  to  fill  this  he  summoned 
Antoine  Duprat,  the  first  President  of  the  Parliament  of  Paris — 
the  man  who  was  destined  to  act  such  an  important  part  as 
his  adviser  1 

For  this  young  and  vigorous  monarch,  light-hearted  and 
full  of  fire,  the  glory  of  some  military  campaign  was  absolutely 
Invasion  of  essential.  There  was  no  need  to  seek  far  for  a 
Milan.  cause.     As    Louis    XII's    heir   through    his    wife 

Claude,  and  consequently  possessing  rights  over  that  perpetual 
bone  of  contention  the  State  of  Milan,  Francis  I  had  only 
to  make  good  his  claim,  sword  in  hand,  at  the  expense  of 
Maximilian  Sforza,  Duke  of  Milan.     It  was  a  brilliant  moment. 

45 


CENTURY    OF   THE    RENAISSANCE 

A  formidable  army  was  raised,  consisting  of  30,000  foot,  10,000 
horse  and  seventy-two  cannon.  The  whole  of  the  youth  of 
France  hastened  to  join  the  standards  ;  princes  and  soldiers 
of  renown  wished  to  share  in  the  enterprise,  and,  in  the  summer 
of  1515,  the  French  host  crossed  the  Alps  by  the  steep  and 
arduous  pass  of  Largentiere,  surrounded  by  incredible  diffi- 
culties, which  it  seemed  impossible  for  any  army  ever  to  over- 
come, leading  their  horses  by  the  bridle,  dragging  along  the 
cannon,  and  blowing  up  rocks.  The  Swiss,  who  were  in  the  pay 
of  Duke  Maximilian,  retreated  beneath  the  walls  of  Milan,  and 
Battle  oJ  Francis  I  took  up  his  position  close  by  at  Marig- 

Marignano,  nano,  a  place  which  he  was  to  make  famous  by 
1515.  a   brilliant   victory.     The   attack   was   made   by 

chance,  and  arose  out  of  a  scuffle  between  some  scouts. 
Matthaus  Schinner,  Bishop  of  Sion,  a  fiery  prelate  who  de- 
tested the  French,  stirred  up  the  Swiss.  He  had  the  tocsin 
rung  and  the  drum  beaten,  with  the  result  that  on  September 
13,  at  about  four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  the  Swiss  battalions, 
to  the  sound  of  the  cornets  of  Uri,  Unterwalden  and  Schwiz, 
headed  by  Schinner,  mounted  on  a  Spanish  jennet,  marched 
out  against  the  French  army.  The  latter  were  in  an  un- 
favourable position,  drawn  up  in  lines  on  the  road  between 
Milan  and  Marignano.  They  could  only  meet  the  onslaught 
of  the  enemy,  who  were  charging  with  lowered  pikes,  by  a 
series  of  partial  counter-attacks.  Bourbon  and  La  Palice 
retaliated  with  their  men-at-arms,  whilst  Francis  I  made  a 
charge  with  600  horse  to  defend  his  artillery  which  was  in 
danger.  At  nightfall  the  battle  was  undecided,  and  both  sides 
remained  as  they  were.  But  before  day  had  dawned,  the  King 
of  France,  who  had  spent  the  night  leaning  against  a  gun 
carriage,  succeeded  in  collecting  his  forces  into  a  single  body, 
with  Bourbon  on  the  right,  Alen9on  on  the  left,  and  the  cannon 
forming  a  battery  in  the  centre.  Eight  thousand  Swiss  advanced, 
but  were  held  in  check  by  the  artillery.  Whilst  Alen9on's 
lines  were  wavering  on  one  side,  Bourbon  held  firm  on  the 
other,  and  Francis  I  made  a  vigorous  onslaught  with  all  his 
cavalry,  routing  and  hewing  down  the  Swiss,  who  took  to  flight. 
The  young  King,  flushed  with  victory,  had  himself  dubbed  a 
knight  by  Bayard  on  the  field  of  battle.  The  State  of  Milan 
46 


THE    KING    AND    THE    EMPEROR 

was  won,  and  Duke  Maximilian  consented,  in  consideration  of 
a  yearly  pension,  to  abandon  his  territory  and  retire  to  France. 
This  was  a  glorious  dawn  for  the  new  reign.     The  victory 
filled  Francis  I  with  joy  and  hope.     The  long  chain  of  defeats 
Concordat  of      and  misfortunes  which  were  to  follow  were  des- 
Bologna,  1516.  tined  to  give  the   lie  to  these   first   favourable 
auspices  !     But,  for  the  moment,  everything  smiled  upon  the 
victor.     The  Pope,  who   had    made  common  cause  with  the 
Duke  of  Milan,  terrified  by  the  news  of  Marignano,  now  wished 
to  make  peace.     Francis  I  was  quite  ready  to  negotiate,  and  a 
magnificent  meeting  took  place  between  the  two  sovereigns  at 
Bologna.     The  young  King  had  an  escort  of  1200  men-at-arms 
and  6000  lansquenets,  whilst  the  Pope  was  surrounded  by  thirty 
cardinals.     Francis  I  and  Leo  X  vied  with  each  other  in  ameni- 
ties.    They  ate  their  meals  together  and  took  part  in  grand 
ceremonies.     Whilst  the  terms  of  the  treaty  were  under  dis- 
cussion, Leo  X  pointed  out  to  the  King  that,  by  the  clauses 
of  a  pragmatic  sanction  dating  from  the  reign  of  Charles  VII, 
France  enjoyed  the  privilege  of  electing  her  archbishops,  bishops 
and  abbots  ;    that  a  certain  right,  called  the  right  of  annats, 
by  which  the  Pope  appropriated  for  one  year  the  revenues  of 
a  see  on  the  appointment  of  a  new  bishop,  had  been  abolished  ; 
and  that  the  Holy  Chair  had  no  jurisdiction  over  ecclesiastical 
cases  in  France.     The  Pope  maintained  that  he  could  not  allow 
the  validity  of  this  pragmatic  sanction,  which  was  heretical 
and  a  menace  to  his  privileges.     Its  revocation  was  the  price 
he  demanded  for  a  cessation  of  hostilities.     Francis  I  and  his 
counsellors  discovered  a  via  media  by  signing  a  convention  in 
virtue  of  which  the  archbishops,  bishops  and  abbots  should  in 
future  be  appointed  by  the  King.     This  was  the  chief  clause. 
A  few  vague  words  were  added  on  the  subject  of  the  third  point 
and  nothing  at  all  was  said  about  the  second.     The  convention 
was  signed  and  became  the  celebrated  Concordat  of  1516,  which 
gave  the  Church  of  France  over  to  the  King's  nomination.     The 
Parliaments  offered  a  lively  opposition.      The  treaty  during 
the  course  of  centuries,  was  destined  to  produce  very  different 
results  from  any  that  could  have  been  foreseen  by  the  con- 
temporaries of  Leo  X  ! 

Francis  I  returned  to  France  surrounded  by  a  halo  of  glory. 

47 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

He  was  the  most  conspicuous  monarch  in  Europe  and  the  most 
fortunate.  No  hope  seemed  too  great  for  him  to  nurse. 
The  question  of  the  moment  was  the  forthcoming  election  of 
an  Emperor  in  Germany.  Francis  I  considered  himself  great 
Candidature  of  ^^<^ugh  to  stand  as  a  candidate  and  make  an 
Francis  I  for  attempt  to  win  this  crown.  Never  in  the  whole 
the  Imperial  course  of  history,  since  the  days  of  the  old 
Throne.  Roman  Emperors  or  of  Charlemagne,  would  any 

prince  have  been  so  great  as  he.  He  made  his  preparations 
and  entered  upon  the  adventure  which  was  destined  to  bring 
about  the  disasters  of  his  own  life  and  the  gravest  compli- 
cations for  his  country  ! 

A  vast  amorphous  body,  the  German  Empire  was  made  up 
of  an  infinite  number  of  small  semi-independent  and  federated 
Rivalry  of  States.     In  accordance  with  ancient  custom,  the 

Charles  V.  Emperor    was    elected    at    Frankfort    by    seven 

electors — the  Archbishops  of  Mainz,  Cologne  and  Treves,  the 
King  of  Bohemia,  the  Duke  of  Saxony,  the  Count  Palatine 
and  the  Margrave  of  Brandenburg.  The  electors  chose  an 
Emperor  before  the  death  of  his  predecessor,  and  whilst 
waiting  to  ascend  the  throne,  the  heir  presumptive  took  the 
title  of  King  of  the  Romans.  Now  Maximilian,  the  reigning 
Emperor,  had  his  own  candidate — his  grandson  Charles,  the 
future  Charles  V  !  In  order  to  understand  the  mosaic  of  territory 
which  Charles  V  had  to  rule,  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  his 
grandfather,  the  Emperor  Maximilian,  had  married  Mary  of 
Burgundy,  daughter  of  Charles  the  Bold,  from  whom  the  family 
inherited  Burgundy  and  Flanders  ;  and  that  his  father,  the 
Archduke  Philip  the  Fair,  who  died  in  1506,  had  married  Joanna 
the  Mad,  the  daughter  of  Ferdinand,  King  of  Aragon,  and 
Isabella,  Queen  of  Castille.  From  this  source  Charles  V  in- 
herited Spain  and  Naples.  Accordingly  it  was  the  lord  of 
Spain,  Flanders  and  Naples  that  the  Emperor  Maximilian 
wished  to  make  Emperor  of  Germany.  Francis  I,  in  proposing 
to  solicit  the  votes  of  the  imperial  electors,  not  only  dreamed 
of  securing  the  overlordship  of  all  Europe  for  himself,  but  was 
also  inspired  by  the  legitimate  desire  of  preventing  the  creation 
of  such  a  monarchy  for  another's  advantage.  Had  he  been  wiser, 
the  King  of  France  would  have  realized  the  danger  of  facing 
48 


THE    KING    AND    THE    EMPEROR 

the  countries  concerned  with  the  choice  of  two  dangers,  of 
which,  whether  rightly  or  wrongly,  they  were  bound  to  con- 
sider his  election  the  graver.  In  order  to  checkmate  the 
grandson  of  Maximilian  he  should  have  sought  out  some  in- 
offensive candidate.  But  this  he  did  not  see.  He  threw  him- 
self into  the  electoral  campaign.  The  adversary  whom  he  was 
attacking  was  destined,  by  his  character,  to  be  the  most 
implacable  agent  of  the  drama  which  was  beginning. 

Charles  V,  who  was  born  in  1500,  at  the  dawn  of  the  new 
century,  offered  a  complete  contrast  to  Francis  I.  He  was 
of  medium  height  and  pale  complexion,  with  a  pinched  aquiline 
Contrast  be-  nose  obstructed  by  adenoids.  His  eyes  were 
tween  Charles  V  grey,  and  his  ugly  chin  was  so  excessively  pro- 
and  Francis  I.  minent  that  it  obliged  him  to  keep  his  mouth 
perpetually  open — a  characteristic  known  as  a  prognathous 
jaw,  and,  according  to  doctors,  a  sign  of  incipient  degeneracy. 
Altogether  he  was  far  from  handsome,  though,  if  we  may 
judge  by  Titian's  portrait  of  him,  he  had  an  air  of 
distinction.  He  was  a  cold,  calm  person,  who  spoke  but  little, 
and  was  neither  amiable  nor  open-hearted,  but  perfectly 
self-possessed,  calculating,  judicious  and  decided— a  man  who 
took  a  long  time  to  make  up  his  mind,  and  when  he  had  once 
done  so  never  changed  it,  but  was  absolutely  ruthless  and 
frigid  in  his  tenacity  of  purpose.  His  look  was  that  of  one 
who  never  lost  his  head,  and  was  embarrassing  as  revealing 
a  nature  formidable  in  its  superior  self-mastery  and  inexorable 
will.  To  crown  all,  he  was  miserly.  Francis  I,  full  of  exuber- 
ance and  spirit,  wore  his  heart  on  his  sleeve  ;  Charles  V  was 
reserved  and  self-contained.  The  King  of  France,  open- 
handed  and  pleasure-loving,  conducted  affairs  of  State  with  a 
light-hearted  superficiality,  whilst  his  adversary,  a  man  of  shrewd 
administrative  gifts,  hating  hunting  and  amusement  of  any 
kind,  gave  himself  up  studiously  to  serious  matters.  Francis  I's 
nervous,  enthusiastic,  unreliable  nature  met  in  Charles  V  a 
cool,  evenly  balanced  mind,  obstinacy  and  subtlety  of  judgment. 
Even  if  their  political  positions  had  not  forced  them  into  enmity 
they  would  never,  as  Queen  Margaret  pointed  out  to  the  Venetian 
ambassador,  Giustiniano,  have  understood  each  other.  They 
were  made  to  hate  each  other  to  the  death  ! 

D  49 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

From  1516  onwards,  Francis  I  sent  envoys  to  Germany  to 
buy  over  the  electors.  He  instructed  them  to  promise  anything 
Manoeuvres  that  might  be  asked — matrimonial  alliances, 
of  Francis  I.  pensions,  or  sums  of  money.  A  policy  of  bare- 
faced trafficking  was  the  result.  Two  of  the  electors  dis- 
tinguished themselves  by  their  greed — Joachim,  Margrave 
of  Brandenburg  and  his  brother,  the  Archbishop  of  Mainz. 
They  consented  to  sell  themselves.  The  Archbishop  of  Treves 
and  the  Count  Palatine  followed  their  example,  thus  securing 
Francis  I  four  votes — ^the  majority !  At  the  same  time, 
the  King  of  France  won  over  various  other  personages  from 
different  localities  to  his  cause,  among  them  Franz  von 
Sickingen,  a  bold  and  extremely  popular  soldier  from  the 
Rhineland,  a  man  of  superior  intellect  and  a  friend  of  Ulrich 
vonHutten,  the  man  of  letters  attached  to  the  little  archiepiscopal 
court  of  Mainz.  He  was  a  warrior  who  could  summon  a  host  of 
lansquenets  to  muster  about  his  fortress  of  Ebernburg  near 
Kreuznach  and  terrorize  the  surrounding  country.  Franz 
paid  a  visit  to  Amboise,  where  he  was  loaded  with  costly  gifts 
and  given  a  pension. 

Charles  of  Austria,  from  the  depths  of  his  Spanish  kingdom, 
learnt  what  was  happening  and  immediately  warned  his  grand- 
Counter-  father.  Maximilian  replied  that  they  must  outdo 
manoeuvres  Francis  I  in  bribery.  Had  his  grandson  any 
of  Charles  V.  money  ?  Hampered  though  he  was  by  grave 
difficulties  caused  by  subjects  who  detested  the  Flemish  ad- 
visers of  their  King,  a  poor  man  still,  and  lacking  in  authority 
on  account  of  his  youth,  Charles  nevertheless  succeeded  in 
raising  a  loan  of  300,000  ducats,  which  he  forwarded  to  Maxi- 
milian. The  old  Emperor,  who  had  not  the  slightest  intention 
of  spending  a  farthing  of  his  own  money,  sent  word  that  the 
sum  was  too  small  and  borrowed  30,000  gold  florins  from  the 
banking  house  of  Fugger  on  account  of  the  King  of  Spain.  The 
latter  thereupon  found  means  to  send  a  further  instalment 
of  100,000  gold  ducats,  and  the  work  was  set  on  foot.  In  re- 
sponse to  extremely  tempting  offers,  Joachim  of  Brandenburg 
and  his  brother  of  Mainz  decided  to  abandon  Francis  I.  The 
Count  Palatine  was  no  less  easy  to  win  over,  whilst  the  King 
of  Bohemia  and  the  Archbishop  of  Cologne  had  already  been 
50 


THE    KING    AND    THE    EMPEROR 

secured.  Charles  now  possessed  five  votes,  but  the  transaction 
had  cost  514,000  gold  florins  without  counting  promises  for 
the  conferring  of  privileges,  rights,  &c.  Maximilian  sent  in  the 
bill  to  his  grandson  with  the  addition  of  50,000  gold  florins  for 
his  own  petty  personal  expenses  !  He  then  summoned  the 
electors  ;  but  on  January  12,  1519,  this  strange  person  breathed 
his  last  ! 

Francis  I,  however,  was  not  to  be  discouraged.  He  sent 
fresh  envoys  to  Germany,  some  of  them  official  ambassadors, 
Election  of  such  as  Jean  d'Albret,  Bonnivet,  and  President 
Charles V,  1519.  Guillart,  and  others  as  secret  agents.  It  was  now 
a  question  of  winning  back  the  electors  by  means  of  fresh 
inducements.  "  If  it  is  necessary,"  exclaimed  Francis  I, 
"  I  will  spend  three  millions  in  order  to  be  Emperor  !  "  He 
wrote  plainly  and  crudely  enough :  "  I  want  the  Margrave 
Joachim  to  be  glutted  to  surfeit  !  " — and  his  bribes  were  in- 
creased. Charles,  on  his  side,  also  raised  his  prices  and  the 
contest  became  so  hotly  disputed,  feverish,  and  implacable,  that 
its  like  had  not  been  seen  for  many  a  long  day.  Brandenburg, 
the  Count  Palatine  and  the  Archbishops  of  Mainz  and  Cologne, 
greedy  and  cynical,  consented  to  return  to  the  King  of  France, 
on  exorbitant  terms.  But  as  soon  as  Armestorff,  the  envoy 
of  Charles  of  Austria,  arrived  upon  the  scene,  they  admitted 
the  state  of  affairs,  and  added  that  for  an  increase  of  100,000 
florins,  they  would  go  over  to  his  side.  Armestorff  succeeded 
in  beating  them  down  to  somewhat  less  than  100,000  florins, 
and  they  accordingly  kept  their  word  to  support  him.  Francis  I 
thereupon  sent  off  400,000  crowns  packed  up  in  leather  bags 
and  collected  some  troops  to  intimidate  them.  But  as  a  matter 
of  fact,  when  the  electors  met  at  Frankfort  on  June  18,  1519, 
nobody  felt  sure  of  anything.  They  entered  into  discussions, 
and  brought  forward  many  reasons  to  prove  the  danger  for 
Germany  which  the  choice  of  the  King  of  France  would  entail, 
and  finally,  Charles  of  Austria  was  elected  without  much  diffi- 
culty. Francis  I  was  at  Poissy  when  the  news  of  his  defeat 
was  brought  to  him  on  July  3.  He  bore  the  disappointment 
without  flinching,  and  in  public  even  congratulated  himself 
upon  his  escape  from  the  responsibilities  of  the  German  Empire. 
He  had  no  idea  that  he  had  just  made  an  irreconcilable  enemy, 

51 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

and  that  Charles  V  would  never  forgive  him  for  having  tried 
to  rob  him  of  a  crown  which  had  been  in  his  family  for  eighty 
years  ! 

But  a  conflict  between  these  two  monarchs  was  inevitable  ! 
Charles  V,  who  hemmed  in  France  with  his  territories,  was  a 
Conflict  between  source  of  perpetual  menace.  Moreover,  pretexts 
Francis  I  and  for  quarrels  were  ready  to  hand.  The  Emperor, 
Charles  V.  as  the  heir  of  Charles  the   Bold,  laid  claim  to 

Burgundy,  which  had  been  seized  by  Louis  XI.  France 
demanded  the  restitution  to  Henri  d'Albret  of  the  Kingdom 
of  Navarre,  which  Ferdinand  the  Catholic  had  appropriated; 
whilst  in  Italy  Charles  V  would  certainly  desire  the  expulsion 
of  the  French  from  the  State  of  Milan ;  and  the  French, 
on  their  side,  would  endeavour  to  drive  out  the  Spaniards  from 
Naples.  It  would  '  have  been  a  miracle  if  the  collision  had 
been  avoided  at  a  time  when  wars  were  waged  for  the  merest 
trifles. 

Before  coming  to  blows  in  an  encounter  which  they  felt 
would  be  decisive,  both  rivals  endeavoured  to  win  over  the 
Nesotiations  *^^  sovereigns  of  Europe  whose  alliance  would 
of  both  with  be  most  useful— the  Pope  and  Henry  VIII,  King 
the  Pope  and  of  England.  The  same  process  was  repeated  as 
Henry  VIII.  {^i  the  case  of  the  electors — it  was  a  question  as 
to  which  would  make  the  highest  bids.  Francis  I  promised 
Leo  X  half  the  Kingdom  of  Naples  as  soon  as  he  had  conquered 
it  ;  Charles  V  consented  to  give  up  Parma,  Placentia,  and 
Ferrara,  and  talked  of  driving  the  French  out  of  Milan  and 
putting  an  Italian,  a  Sforza,  in  their  place.  The  Pope  con- 
sidered the  Emperor's  offer  the  safer  of  the  two  and  entered 
into  a  secret  treaty  with  him.  The  negotiations  with  Henry 
VIII  were  even  more  mortifying.  It  was  necessary  to  have 
an  understanding  with  England,  in  order  to  prevent  Henry  VIII 
from  making  an  attack  upon  the  north  of  France  whilst  Francis  I 
was  fighting  his  Italian  battles.  Francis  I  accordingly  pro- 
posed a  meeting  with  the  English  King  between  Calais  and 
Ardres,  to  which  the  latter  gave  his  consent — an  acceptance 
which  resulted  in  the  celebrated  interview  of  the  Field  of  the 
Cloth  of  Gold.  But  as  soon  as  Charles  V  heard  of  the  project 
he  immediately  set  sail  from  Spain,  and  hastening  to  London 
52 


THE    KING    AND    THE    EMPEROR 

in  five  days,  promised  Henry  VIII  that  if  Spain  were  victorious 
he  would  hand  over  several  French  provinces  to  him ;  then 
turning  to  Cardinal  Wolsey,  the  all-powerful  minister  to  whose 
advice  the  King  always  lent  a  ready  ear,  he  offered  him  the 
Triple  Crown.  When  Henry  VIII  disembarked  at  Calais  to 
meet  Francis  I  he  had  already  been  won  over  by  the  astute 
and  crafty  Emperor  ! 

What  a  melancholy  and  humiliating  spectacle  the  magni- 
ficent pageant  of  the  Field  of  the  Cloth  of  Gold  was  destined 
The  Field  of  *^  present,  since  its  negative  result  had  been 
the  Cloth  o£  decided  even  before  it  took  place  !  Francis  I 
Gold,  1530.  wished  to  dazzle  Henry  VIII  by  the  sight  of 
matchless  luxury  and  splendour.  He  came  with  a  gorgeous 
escort  of  5172  people  and  2865  horses.  All  the  Court  was 
present,  including  the  Queens,  Louise  and  Claude,  the  King's 
sister  Margaret,  four  cardinals,  and  all  the  princes  and  nobility 
of  the  realm.  Near  Ardres  he  pitched  his  camp,  consisting 
of  300  tents  covered  with  cloth  of  gold  and  silver  and 
lined  inside  with  velvet  and  silk.  Above  the  King's  tent, 
which  was  also  of  cloth  of  gold,  was  erected  a  golden  statue 
of  St.  Michael.  The  whole  presented  the  spectacle  of  a  glistening 
mass  of  gold.  In  order  not  to  be  outdone  Henry  VIII  was 
obliged  to  put  up  a  little  palace  of  wood  also  covered  with  velvet 
and  silk,  and  adorned  with  Arras  tapestries.  The  interview 
took  place  with  great  solemnity  on  June  7.  The  two  Kings 
rode  out  to  meet  each  other  mounted  upon  horses  caparisoned 
with  gold  and  silver  ;  their  clothes  were  glistening  with  pearls, 
diamonds,  emeralds,  and  rubies ;  their  velvet  caps,  covered 
with  precious  stones,  were  adorned  with  huge  white  plumes, 
whilst  their  attendants,  dressed  in  suits  of  gold  and  silver, 
surrounded  them  on  prancing  steeds.  The  two  Kings,  preceded 
by  their  Constables  carrying  huge  drawn  swords,  rode  down 
towards  each  other  from  opposite  slopes  and  met  in  front  of  a 
pavilion  situated  in  the  middle  of  the  little  plain  of  Valdore. 
They  saluted  and  kissed  each  other  whilst  still  on  horseback 
and  then,  dismounting  and  linking  arms,  they  entered  the 
pavilion  followed  only  by  their  chief  advisers,  Wolsey  and 
Bonnivet  respectively.  The  interview  was  most  cordial.  The 
conversation  lasted  a  long  time,  but  Henry  VIII  evaded  any 

53 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

idea  of  a  definite  engagement  whilst  assuring  Francis  I  of  his 
good  will  and  friendship.  For  five  and  twenty  days  the  two 
monarchs  exchanged  an  uninterrupted  series  of  festivals, 
dinners,  tournaments,  and  jousts  held  in  vast  lists  surrounded 
by  elegant  stands  in  which  the  ladies  of  the  two  Courts  had 
seats.  Francis  I  proved  himself  an  adept  in  games,  whilst 
Henry  VIII  showed  great  vigour.  The  athletic  strength  of 
the  English  King  and  his  solid  sporting  qualities  were  objects 
of  universal  admiration.  He  even  challenged  Francis  I  in  joke 
to  wrestle  a  bout  with  him  and  seized  him  round  the  waist  with 
his  muscular  hands.  But  his  opponent,  with  a  twist  of  his  leg, 
sent  him  flying,  and  it  was  necessary  to  interfere  between  them 
in  order  to  put  a  stop  to  an  incident  which  would  have  ended 
in  a  scene.  When  they  finally  bade  each  other  farewell  they 
exchanged  words  of  friendship  and  no  more.  On  leaving 
Francis  I,  Henry  VIII  went  straight  to  Gravelines  to  meet 
Charles  V,  who  was  awaiting  him,  and  concluded  his  under- 
standing with  the  Emperor. 

Whether  he  had  been  deceived  or  not,  Francis  I  made  up 
his  mind  not  to  postpone  his  attack  upon  the  Emperor.  Cir- 
Hostilities  of  cumstances  chanced  to  be  propitious.  In  Spain, 
1521.  where    Charles   V    was    struggling    with    money 

difficulties,  the  people,  exasperated  by  constant  demands  for 
taxes,  were  in  a  state  of  rebellion.  In  Germany,  the  dawn 
of  Lutheranism  was  causing  a  profound  upheaval,  and  the 
Emperor  had  his  vast  and  too  widely  scattered  dominions 
badly  in  hand.  In  the  spring  of  1521,  Andre  de  Foix,  Sieur 
de  Lesparre,  crossed  the  Pjrrenees  with  8000  infantry  and 
seized  Navarre  without  meeting  with  any  resistance  except 
at  Pampeluna,  where  one  of  the  defenders,  a  nobleman  of 
Guipuzcoa,  had  his  leg  broken.  This  man  was  none  other  than 
Ignatius  Loyola,  and  the  wound  he  received  on  this  occasion 
was  destined  to  play  an  important  part  in  the  history  of  the 
foundation  of  the  Jesuit  Order  !  When  Charles  V  heard  of 
this  act  of  aggression  he  was  delighted,  and  exclaimed,  "  The 
King  of  France  wishes  to  make  me  greater  than  I  am.  In  a 
little  while  either  I  shall  be  an  extremely  poor  Emperor,  or  he 
will  be  a  poor  King  of  France  !  "  The  Duke  of  Najera,  his 
representative  in  Navarre,  collected  12,000  men  and  2000  horse 
54 


THE    KING    AND    THE    EMPEROR 

and  attacking  Lesparre,  routed  his  army  and  took  him  prisoner. 
The  Emperor's  prophecy  was  beginning  to  be  fulfilled. 

Charles  V  immediately  went  to  Flanders  with  the  intention 
of  himself  leading  an  attack  upon  the  French  frontier  from  that 
quarter.  He  also  set  on  foot  a  movement  in  Italy.  The  King 
of  France  mobilized  three  armies ;  he  sent  Lautrec  with  some 
troops  to  Milan,  Bonnivet  with  6000  lansquenets  to  the  Pyrenees, 
and  marched  in  person  to  the  north  with  a  force  of  26,000 
infantry,  1500  men-at-arms,  and  twelve  cannon  to  the  relief 
of  Bayard  who,  shut  up  in  Mezieres,  was  holding  his  own  vigor- 
ously against  the  Count  of  Nassau  and  Franz  von  Sickingen, 
the  latter  of  whom  had  taken  service  under  the  Emperor.  He 
put  these  two  generals  to  flight  and  presently  near  Valenciennes 
fell  in  with  Charles  V,  who  had  entrenched  himself  behind  the 
Scheldt.  Francis  I  might  have  offered  him  battle  ;  but  he  did 
not  dare  to  attack  him,  and  allowed  him  to  escape.  The  favour- 
able opportunity  he  thus  missed  was  never  offered  to  him 
again. 

From  this  moment  everything  turned  against  Francis  I. 
In  Italy,  Lautrec  was  attacked  by  an  army  of  20,000  men  under 
Battle  o!  the  Prospero  Colonna.  Deserted  by  his  Swiss  mer- 
Bicocca,  1522.  cenaries,  because,  owing  to  lack  of  funds,  he  had 
not  been  able  to  pay  them,  and  with  the  Milanese  in  a  state 
of  rebellion  against  his  brutalities,  he  was  obliged  to  evacuate 
the  country.  Francis  I  entrusted  him  with  another  army  with 
which  he  tried  to  win  back  Milan,  but  the  Emperor's  general 
attacked  him  at  the  Bicocca.  He  might  have  held  his  own 
in  triumph  had  not  the  Swiss,  who  had  not  been  paid,  once 
again  insisted  upon  either  fighting  or  being  discharged.  Lautrec 
consented  to  fight  on  April  27,  1522.  He  was  worsted  and  the 
Swiss  disbanded  themselves,  whereupon  he  retreated  to  France, 
leaving  the  valley  of  the  Po  in  the  hands  of  the  Imperialists. 

This  proved  one  of  the  first  disastrous  moments  of  the 
reign  of  Francis  I.  Henry  VIII  informed  him  of  his  alliance 
Treachery  of  with  Charles  V,  and  broke  off  all  relations  with 
Constable  him.     The  Pope  and  the  Venetians  followed  the 

Bourbon,  1523.  example  of  the  English  King,  and  Francis  I  found 
himself  with  the  whole  of  Europe  against  him.  He  met  the 
blast  with  calm  dignity  and  lofty  resignation.      "  All  Europe 

55 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

is  in  league  against  me,"  he  proudly  informed  the  Parlia- 
ment of  Paris ;  "  Well,  I  will  face  all  Europe  !  "  And  he 
prepared  a  great  army  which  he  proposed  to  lead  in  person 
into  Italy.  Why,  like  his  predecessors,  was  he  so  enamoured 
of  those  unfortunate  Italian  provinces  which  it  was  impossible 
to  hold,  when  he  ought  to  have  turned  his  attention  to  the 
north  from  which  he  was  presently  to  be  attacked  ?  The  only 
explanation  that  can  be  found  for  this  obstinacy  is  afforded 
by  the  fact  that  he  had  definite  rights  over  Milan  which  he  did 
not  possess  elsewhere.  But,  to  crown  his  ill-luck,  when  the 
whole  of  Christendom  was  against  him,  Francis  I  found  himself 
betrayed  by  the  most  powerful  man  in  his  own  kingdom.  His 
cousin,  Charles,  Duke  of  Bourbon,  a  high  Crown  official  and 
Constable  of  France,  went  over  to  the  enemy  ! 

This  act  of  treason  caused  a  profound  sensation.  The  effect 
produced  was  due  not  so  much  to  the  results  of  the  act,  which 
Bourbon's  were  not  so  grave  as  they  might  have  been,  as 

grievance  to  the  moral  conditions  which  had  brought  it  to 

against  pass.     Feminine  animosities  have  wrongly  been 

Francis  I.  mixed  up  in  the  affair,   which  in  itself  was,  re- 

latively speaking,  simple  enough.  Charles  of  Bourbon,  a  man 
of  thirty-three,  thin  and  bony-faced,  with  a  narrow  receding 
brow,  close-cropped  beard,  and  a  restless,  troubled  and  discon- 
tented expression — if  we  may  judge  by  Titian's  portrait  of 
him — did  not  inspire  confidence  by  his  appearance.  He  was 
somewhat  feeble  in  character.  He  was  the  head  of  the  powerful 
House  of  Bourbon,  which  traced  its  descent  from  Saint  Louis 
and  was  destined  to  ascend  the  throne  at  the  end  of  the  century 
in  the  person  of  Henry  IV.  He  himself  belonged  to  the  younger 
branch,  the  Montpensiers,  but  had  united  all  the  rich  lands 
of  his  family  by  marrying  the  sole  heiress  of  the  elder  branch — 
Suzanne  de  Bourbon,  the  daughter  of  Pierre,  Duke  of  Bourbon, 
and  Anne  de  Beaujeu.  But  the  latter,  ever  prudent  and  far- 
sighted,  had  made  it  a  condition  of  the  marriage  settlement 
that  if  Suzanne  died  without  issue,  her  property  should  revert 
to  the  Crown.  Charles,  who  was  the  greatest  landed  noble  of 
France,  was  well  treated  by  the  Court.  He  w^as  made  Cham- 
berlain, Governor  of  Languedoc,  and  Constable.  He  frequently 
entertained  Francis  I  at  his  residence  at  Moulins,  giving  magni- 
56 


THE    KING    AND    THE    EMPEROR 

ficent  festivals  in  his  honour  and  spending  his  money  without 
stint.  The  King,  who  was  extremely  kind  to  him,  was  never- 
theless unfortunately  guilty  of  some  imprudences  in  connexion 
with  him  ;  he  gave  him  a  rank  in  the  army  inferior  to  his 
position  and  wounded  his  vanity  by  a  lack  of  ceremony.  With 
the  object  of  keeping  the  colossal  heritage  of  the  Bourbons  in 
his  own  hands,  Charles  had  secured  from  his  wife  a  will  in  which 
she  left  him  all  her  property.  In  1521,  Suzanne  died  without 
issue.  The  question  arose  as  to  whether  she  had  any  right  to  dis- 
pose of  property  the  destination  of  which  had  already  been  fixed 
by  her  marriage  contract,  and  which,  consequently,  did  not 
belong  to  her.  The  Crown  was  of  opinion  that  she  had  no  such 
right  and  brought  an  action  to  this  effect  before  the  Parliament 
of  Paris.  Louise  of  Savoy,  who  also  had  some  claim  to  the 
heritage,  lodged  her  protest  as  well.  In  view  of  the  services 
he  had  rendered  and  all  he  had  done  for  the  royal  family,  the 
Constable  was  hurt  by  what  he  regarded  as  an  attempt  to  rob 
him,  though  it  was  only  a  question  of  the  nominal  ownership 
of  his  property,  the  revenue  of  which  was  secured  to  him  for 
life. 

As  soon  as  Charles  V,  who  was  a  distant  relative  of 
Bourbon,  heard  of  his  discontent,  he  sent  an  envoy  to  express 
Charles  V's  sympathy  with  his  troubles  and  to  offer  him  the 
negotiations  hand  of  his  sister  Eleonora.  The  Constable  was 
with  Bourbon,  touched  by  this  attention,  and,  moved  either 
by  politeness  or  by  self-interest,  did  not  dare  to  reject  the 
overture.  In  addition  to  this,  the  attitude  of  the  Parliament, 
which  seemed  prepared  to  return  a  verdict  against  him, 
was  a  cause  of  extreme  irritation  to  him.  Charles  V  then 
offered  to  make  a  treaty  with  the  Constable  by  the  terms 
of  which  the  Emperor  bound  himself  to  maintain,  if  necessary 
by  force  of  arms,  Bourbon's  territorial  rights,  if  the  latter, 
for  his  part,  would  support  the  Emperor's  claim  to  Bur- 
gundy. Partly  from  a  desire  for  revenge  and  partly  out  of 
weakness,  Bourbon  gave  his  consent.  Francis  I  got  wind  of 
the  proceedings.  He  was  extremely  angrj^,  but  as  he  was  not 
absolutely  certain  of  his  ground,  he  told  the  Constable  that  he 
would  bear  his  conduct  in  mind.  "  Is  that  meant  as  a  threat. 
Sire  ?  "  demanded  the  latter. 

57 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

Meanwhile  Charles  V  was  busy  inducing  Henry  VIII  to 
join  his  league,  and  this  time  the  plan  of  action  was  complete. 
It  was  decided  that  when  the  allies  attacked  France  the  Constable 
should  help  them  from  within  the  borders.  Henry  VIII  was 
to  have  a  substantial  share  of  the  spoil,  but  was  to  hand  over 
Poitou,  Provence,  and  Champagne  to  Bourbon,  whilst  Charles  V 
was  to  have  Burgundy.  The  conspirators  were  to  set  out  on 
the  march  as  soon  as  Francis  I  made  his  descent  into  Italy. 
The  utmost  that  the  unfortunate  Constable  could  do  was  to 
refuse  to  give  his  signature  or  plight  his  word  to  anything. 
Far  from  being  an  actively  guilty  party,  he  had  been  dragged 
somewhat  against  his  will  into  this  act  of  treachery.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  he  even  wept  as  he  related  these  details  to  his 
friend  Saint -Vallier,  who  bore  witness  to  the  fact  at  the  subse- 
quent trial.  Francis  I  was  informed  of  the  whole  proceeding 
by  two  young  Norman  nobles.  Monsieur  d'Argouges  and 
Monsieur  de  Matignon,  to  whom  Bourbon  had  foolishly  un- 
bosomed himself  in  order  to  prepare  the  way  for  Henry  VIII's 
landing  in  Normandy.  They  were  indignant  and  immediately 
went  and  reported  all  they  knew.  It  was  out  of  the  question 
for  the  King  of  France  to  go  to  Italy  and  leave  such  a  danger 
in  the  rear.  But  how  could  he  have  his  Constable  arrested 
without  evidence  ?  He  went  to  pay  him  a  visit  at  Moulins, 
but  found  him  ill  in  bed ;  the  doctors  vowed  that  it  was 
impossible  for  him  to  move.  The  King  made  him  promise 
to  come  and  join  him  at  Lyons  the  moment  he  was  better, 
giving  him  to  understand  that  he  would  not  start  without  him, 
but  would  await  his  arrival.  Time  passed,  and  Bourbon  did 
not  put  in  an  appearance.  Francis  I  sent  several  messengers 
to  bid  him  hasten,  but  excuse  after  excuse  was  the  only  reply. 
Suddenly  a  rumour  was  spread  that  the  King,  goaded  by  these 
equivocations,  had  made  up  his  mind  to  have  the  Constable 
arrested,  and  that  he  was  sending  troops  for  the  purpose. 
Oblivious  of  his  real  or  feigned  malady,  Bourbon  mounted  his 
horse  and  fled  without  stopping  till  he  reached  the  fortress  of 
Chantelle,  where  he  shut  himself  up.  After  a  revelation  such 
as  this,  it  was  difficult  to  be  in  any  further  doubt,  and  Francis  I 
no  longer  hesitated.  Bourbon  thereupon  disguised  himself  as 
a  lackey  and  fled  in  the  company  of  a  gentleman  named  de 
58 


THE    KING    AND    THE    EMPEROR 

Pomperant.  After  numerous  dramatic  adventures,  he  reached 
the  eastern  frontier,  where  he  was  welcomed  by  the  Emperor 
and  given  a  post  in  his  army  with  the  prospect  of  being  made 
Lieutenant-General  of  the  force  in  Italy  destined  to  fight  against 
the  King  of  France  !  Francis  I  gave  orders  for  all  the  property 
of  the  fugitive  to  be  seized,  but  offered  to  restore  it  if  the  Con- 
stable would  consent  to  return.  Bourbon  replied  that  it  was 
too  late  !  This  treachery  caused  a  profound  agitation  among 
the  public. 

In  these  circumstances  it  was  wiser  for  Francis  I  not  to 
cross  the  Alps.  Moreover  all  his  frontiers  were  being  attacked 
Battles  oJ  simultaneously.     The  enemy's  scouts  had  reached 

Rebecco  and  Compiegne  and  terrified  the  Parisians  who  had 
Romagnano,  been  obliged  to  prepare  for  defence.  The  in- 
1524.  decision   of   the   allies,    however,    saved   France. 

Henry  VIII  did  not  advance  ;  the  Flemish  army  fell  back  ; 
and  in  the  south  the  Spaniards  made  an  unsuccessful  attack 
on  Bayonne  and  beat  a  retreat  ;  with  the  result  that  the  year 
1523  had  a  less  dangerous  ending  than  there  had  been  reason 
to  fear.  The  King  then  turned  his  attention  to  Italy,  whither 
he  ordered  Bonnivet  to  march  with  25,000  foot  and  1500  men- 
at-arms  against  Prospero  Colonna,  a  man  who  was  destined  on 
his  death  to  be  replaced  to  some  extent  by  Lannoy,  Viceroy 
of  Naples,  but  even  more  conspicuously  by  Bourbon.  The 
Imperialists  were  stronger  than  the  French,  and  Bonnivet  was 
driven  from  the  banks  of  the  Ticino  as  the  result  of  the  battle 
of  Rebecco.  He  retreated  towards  the  Alps  in  order  to  effect 
a  junction  with  the  Swiss  mercenaries  he  was  expecting,  but 
was  attacked  once  more  at  Romagnano  on  the  Sesia  and  again 
defeated.  It  was  during  the  course  of  this  retreat  that  Bayard, 
who  was  in  command  of  the  rearguard,  was  shot  in  the  back 
by  an  arquebuse  and  mortally  wounded.  He  was  laid  on  the 
ground  at  the  foot  of  a  tree.  Bourbon,  who  chanced  to  be 
passing  by  at  the  moment,  expressed  his  sorrow  at  seeing  him 
in  such  a  grievous  state  and  assm'ed  him  of  his  pity.  The  fear- 
less and  faultless  knight — le  chevalier  sans  peur  et  sans  reproche 
— answered  in  melancholy  accents  :  "  There  is  nothing  to  pity 
in  me,  for  I  am  dying  the  death  of  an  honourable  man.  But 
I    pity    you    for  serving   against    your   King,   your  country, 

59 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

and  your  plighted  word !  "  Bonnivet  then  recrossed  the 
Alps. 

At  this  juncture  the  Imperialists,  on  the  suggestion  of 
Bourbon,  crossed  the  mountains  in  their  turn  and  invaded 
The  Imperial-  Pi'ovence  (June,  1524).  Their  object  was  to 
ists  invade  take  Marseilles  and  then  to  march  through 
Provence.  Lyons  to  Paris,  where  Henry  VIII  was  to  meet 

them  in  order  to  be  crowned  King  of  France.  Marseilles, 
however,  was  well  stocked  with  food  and  ammunition,  and 
was  admirably  defended  by  its  citizens,  who  fought  with 
invincible  courage.  The  project  failed.  Bourbon's  troops, — 
mercenaries  raised  from  many  sources  and  difficult  to  keep  in 
hand— after  several  wearisome  and  futile  attacks,  announced 
that  they  had  had  enough.  Bourbon  was  obliged  to  give  up 
the  campaign  and  return  to  the  valley  of  the  Po.  No  invasion 
of  France  from  that  quarter  ever  succeeded. 

This  seemed  to  Francis  I  to  afford  a  favourable  opportunity 
for  returning  to  the  plan  he  had  formed  two  years  previously, 
and  marching  in  person  into  Italy  at  the  head  of  a  large  army, 
to  repeat  his  success  at  Marignano.  He  had  faith  in  his  star 
and  believed  that  victory  was  assured.  When  once  he  had 
conquered  Milan  he  would  go  even  as  far  as  Naples  !  Former 
reverses  had  taught  him  nothing.  He  regarded  the  vindication 
of  his  rights  merely  as  a  means  for  attacking  Charles  V,  for  the 
legal  aspect  of  his  case  seemed  for  the  moment  to  have  supplanted 
any  abstract  notion  of  conquest.  The  catastrophe  of  Pa  via 
and  the  imprisonment  which  was  to  follow  were  to  prove 
a  rude  awakening  from  his  dreams  ! 

In  October,  1524,  he  crossed  the  Alps  with  30,000  infantry 
and  1500  lancers  under  the  command  of  his  oldest  and  most 
Francis  I  experienced     generals.      The     Imperialists    were 

invades  Italy,  terrified  and  melted  away  at  his  approach.  He 
entered  Milan.  In  Pavia  only  6000  men  held  their  groimd, 
and  he  marched  to  lay  siege  to  the  city.  For  three  months 
he  blockaded  it,  hoping  to  starve  out  the  defenders.  Mean- 
while, however,  Lannoy  and  Bourbon  were  marching  to  its 
relief  with  20,000  infantry,  700  men-at-arms,  and  500  light 
cavalry.  The  two  armies  met  in  January,  1525.  For  three 
weeks  they  faced  each  other,  but  at  last  the  Imperialists, 
60 


THE    KING    AND    THE    EMPEROR 

threatened  by  the  desertion  of  their  troops  en  masse,  owing  to 
lack  of  funds  for  paying  them — the  Grisons  and  the  Itahans 
had  akeady  abandoned  the  King  of  France — decided  to  give 
battle.  They  accordingly  opened  the  attack  beneath  the  walls 
Battle  of  of  Pavia  on  the  night  of  February  24,  reaching 

Pavia,  1525.  the  left  flank  of  the  French  army  through  a  large 
park,  surrounded  by  high  walls,  in  which  stood  the  castle 
of  Mirabello.  The  French  wheeled  to  the  right  in  order  to 
face  their  assailants,  and  the  artillery,  under  the  command 
of  Galiot  de  Genouillac,  opened  fire.  For  a  moment,  the 
Imperialists,  surprised  by  this  counter-movement,  wavered. 
But  Pescara,  one  of  the  leaders,  urged  them  on  to  the  attack. 
Francis  I  made  a  vigorous  sally  at  the  head  of  his  nobles  and 
two  free  companies.  But  on  his  flank  and  in  his  rear,  Pescara 
was  cutting  his  way  through  with  his  Spaniards.  The  right 
wing  of  the  French  army  was  demoralized ;  it  wavered  and 
broke.  The  centre,  in  its  turn,  was  routed,  and  the  Swiss,  w'ho 
were  held  in  reserve  in  the  second  echelon,  seeing  the  confusion 
in  the  centre,  fled  without  striking  a  blow.  The  whole  of  the 
French  army  was  routed.  Francis  I  and  his  nobles  were  left 
unsupported,  fighting  with  the  courage  of  despair.  Rather 
than  take  flight  the  chivalrous  King  of  France  made  up  his 
mind  to  meet  his  death.  He  continued  his  charge  like  a  mad- 
man. One  by  one  his  brave  nobles  fell  about  him — a  hecatomb 
of  the  best  blood  in  France  :  the  aged  La  Tremoille,  Marshal  la 
Palice,  Marshal  de  Foix,  Admiral  Bonnivet,  the  Lord  High 
Steward  and  the  Master  of  the  Horse.  Recognizing  the  King, 
the  enemy's  soldiers  endeavoured  to  capture  him.  At  length 
the  unfortunate  monarch's  horse  fell ;  his  foes  rushed  upon 
him  and  M.  de  Pomperant,  Bourbon's  friend,  tried  to  make 
Francis  I  give  up  his  sword,  which,  however,  he  would  only 
consent  to  surrender  to  the  Viceroy  Lannoy.     All  was  over  ! 

It  was  a  fearful  disaster  !  In  two  short  hours  the  French 
army  had  been  dispersed,  10,000  men  had  fallen,  high  Crown 
Capture  of  officials  and  illustrious  subjects  lay  scattered  on 

Francis  I.  the  field  of  battle  or  had  been  taken  prisoners. 

The  King  of  Navarre,  the  Count  of  Saint-Paul,  and  Marshal 
Anne  de  Montmorency  had  fallen  into  the  hands  of  the 
enemy.      The   Duke   of   Alengon,    the    King's    brother-in-law, 

61 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

alone  had  escaped — but  he  died  of  shame  two  months  later  ! 
Francis  I  was  taken  away  in  the  darkness  of  the  evening  and 
shut  up  in  the  fortress  of  Pizzighettone  under  a  guard  of  200 
men-at-arms  and  1200  infantry  commanded  by  a  Spaniard 
named  Alarcon.  A  letter  which  he  wrote  to  his  mother,  Louise 
of  Savoy,  to  inform  her  of  the  full  extent  of  the  disaster  is  still 
in  existence.  In  it  he  said  :  "  Of  all  I  possessed  only  my 
honour  and  my  life  are  saved." 

Francis  I  and  his  country  were  indeed  in  a  terrible  plight  ! 
The  eldest  of  the  captive  King's  children  was  but  eight  years 
old  !  Louise  of  Savoy,  who  was  made  Regent,  had  not  a 
regiment,  a  general,  or  a  crown  piece  for  the  defence  of  the 
State  !  If  France  was  not  conquered  and  dismembered  at 
this  juncture  she  owed  it  to  the  incompetence  which  divided 
her  foes  against  themselves. 

Charles  V  was  at  Madrid  when  he  received  the  extraordinary 
and  unexpected  news  of  his  decisive  victory  !  He  maintained 
his  usual  impertm-bability,  however,  and  when  it  was  suggested 
that  he  should  celebrate  his  triumph  by  some  magnificent 
festival,  he  refused.  With  perfect  calmness  he  went  to  a  service 
to  return  thanks  to  the  Almighty  for  his  success,  and  took  part 
in  a  thanksgiving  procession,  after  which  he  deliberated  upon 
his  future  course  of  action.  Bourbon  wished  him  to  invade  the 
conquered  country  without  delay,  have  Henry  VIII  crowned 
at  Saint-Denis,  and  divide  the  spoils.  Henry  VIII,  on  his  side, 
laid  claim  to  France,  though  he  consented  to  hand  over  Bur- 
gundy, Provence,  and  Languedoc  to  the  Emperor,  whilst  the 
Duke  of  Bourbon  was  to  have  Dauphiny  and  the  whole  of  his 
ancient  heritage.  If  this  claim  were  considered  too  exorbitant 
he  would  be  content  with  the  provinces  which  had  once  belonged 
to  England :  Normandy,  Gascony,  Guyenne,  Anjou,  Poitou 
and  Maine,  with  Brittany  thrown  in. 

Two  courses  of  action  were  proposed  in  Charles  V's  council. 
Either  the  downfall  of  Francis  I  must  be  compassed  and  his 
Demands  o!  ruin  completed  once  for  all,  or  peace  must  be 
Charles  V.  made  with  him  on  terms  more  or  less  acceptable 

to  all  concerned.  Gattinara,  the  Chancellor,  who  supported 
the  latter  alternative,  held  his  ground  firmly,  pointing  out 
that  Henry  VIII's  proposals  were  degrading  to  a  fallen  foe, 
62 


THE    KING    AND    THE    EMPEROR 

and  that,  moreover,  their  reaHzation  would  make  the  King  of 
England  far  too  formidable.  Charles  V  agreed,  and  a  discussion 
ensued  as  to  the  conditions  which  should  be  imposed  upon 
Francis  I.  They  were  extremely  harsh  !  The  King  of  France 
was  to  renounce  all  his  rights  in  Italy,  both  in  Milan  and  in 
Naples  ;  he  was  to  give  back  the  territories  of  Charles  the  Bold 
which  had  been  unlawfully  seized  by  Louis  XI,  including  Bur- 
gundy and  a  number  of  seigniories ;  he  was  solemnly  to  abjure 
any  right  of  suzerainty  over  Flanders  and  Artois,  a  privilege 
humiliating  to  Charles  V,  inasmuch  as  it  made  him  a  vassal 
of  the  King  of  France  ;  and,  lastly,  he  was  to  give  back  to 
Charles  of  Bourbon  all  his  possessions  with  the  addition  of 
Provence.  Henry  VIII  was  to  receive  compensation.  In  order 
to  make  this  treaty  more  binding  it  was  to  be  ratified  by  the  States 
General  and  as  soon  as  the  King  of  France  found  himself  thus 
obviously  crippled,  he  was  to  make  an  alliance  with  the  Emperor, 
and  accompany  the  latter  on  a  campaign  he  was  meditating 
against  the  Turks,  with  the  object  of  checking  the  Mussulman 
invasion  which  had  become  serious  in  the  valley  of  the  Danube. 
If  Francis  I  refused,  his  country  would  be  occupied. 

These  conditions  were  conveyed,  not  to  Francis  I  himself, 
but  to  Louise  of  Savoy.  In  spite  of  the  gravity  of  the  situation, 
Louise  of  Louise   had   kept   her  head.     With  the   help   of 

Savoy,  Regent.  Florimond  Robertet,  the  clever  Secretary  of 
State,  and  Chancellor  Duprat,  she  had  taken  active  measures 
to  put  the  country  in  a  state  of  defence.  In  this  task  she 
had  been  backed  by  all.  Nobody  tried  to  turn  the  condition 
of  affairs  to  account  or  to  make  trouble.  The  Parliament 
of  Paris  had  organized  a  defence  of  the  capital.  In 
Normandy,  the  clergy,  the  nobility  and  the  towns  had  com- 
bined to  offer  resistance  to  any  invasion  and  to  maintain  order. 
The  Regent  on  going  to  Lyons  had  succeeded  in  raising  a  small 
army,  and  the  paralysis  that  had  seized  the  country  when  the 
blow  had  first  fallen  was  followed  by  a  growth  of  confidence 
and  a  firmer  hope  for  better  things.  When  Charles  V's  envoy 
presented  himself  to  Louise  of  Savoy  in  order  to  make  known 
to  her  his  master's  conditions,  she  answered  resolutely  that 
the  State  was  in  a  position  to  defend  itself,  and  that  she  would 
not  yield  an  inch  of  territory  ! 

63 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

Francis  I,  shut  up  in  the  prison  of  Pizzighettone,  passed 
through  contradictory  phases  of  depression  and  careless  levity. 
Francis  I.  a  -^^  ^^^  dressed  himself  in  clothes  of  ashen  grey 
captive  at  and   had   written  Charles  V  letters  of  doubtful 

Pizzighettone.  dignity,  in  which  he  begged  him  to  be  generous 
and  not  drive  him  to  extremity,  but  on  the  contrary  to  make 
a  friend  of  him  rather  than  force  him  to  despair.  "  You 
may  be  certain,"  he  assured  him  humbly,  "that  instead  of  a 
useless  prisoner  you  will  make  a  king  your  slave  for  all  time  !  " 
After  an  entreaty  of  this  kind  he  would  play  tennis  or  write 
verses  which  he  sent  to  his  mistress,  the  fair  Mademoiselle 
d'Heilly,  and  snatch  a  few  hours  of  gaiety  in  spite  of  the  fact 
that,  although  treated  with  all  possible  respect,  he  was  closely 
watched  and  not  allowed  the  smallest  liberty.  Charles  V  had 
him  informed  of  the  conditions  he  had  sent  to  Louise  of  Savoy. 
Francis  I  received  them  with  a  gesture  of  unutterable  weariness 
and  replied  that  the  terms  were  "extremely  hard,"  but  that 
he  left  the  task  of  discussing  them  to  his  mother,  the  Regent. 
As  far  as  he  was  concerned  he  was  ready  to  renounce  all  right 
over  Italy,  Milan,  Naples,  Artois  and  Flanders ;  he  would 
give  Bourbon  back  his  territories  with  the  addition  of  Provence, 
and  pay  Henry  VIII  compensation.  About  Burgundy  he 
said  nothing.  Louise  of  Savoy  considered  these  concessions 
excessive,  whilst  Charles  V  was  of  opinion  that  they  were 
inadequate. 

Francis  I  then  thought  that  if  he  could  see  the  Emperor 
and  speak  to  him  personally  he  might  perhaps  find  it  easier 
Francis  I.  a  *^  secure  terms  which  negotiations  carried  on 
captive  in  at  a  distance  through  intermediaries  armed  with 

Spain.  insufficient    authority   would    never   wring    from 

him.  He  begged  his  custodians — Alarcon,  Lannoy,  Viceroy  of 
Naples,  Pescara  and  Antonio  de  Leiva — to  take  him  to  Spain. 
They  had  received  orders  from  Charles  V  that  after  an 
imprisonment  of  three  months  at  Pizzighettone,  the  captive 
King  was  to  be  removed  to  Naples.  To  this  Francis  I  objected 
violently,  as  the  climate  of  Naples  did  not  agree  with  him. 
Lannoy,  a  kindly,  temperate  man,  who  wished  to  see  matters 
settled  and  an  honourable  peace  concluded,  suddenly,  without 
consulting  any  one,  not  even  the  Emperor,  took  the  step  of 
64 


THE    KING   AND    THE    EMPEROR 

putting  the  French  King  on  board  ship  and  sailing  for  Spain. 
He  landed  at  Barcelona  on  June  19,  1525,  and  announced  his 
arrival  by  a  letter  to  Charles  V,  who  was  in  Toledo.  Charles 
was  furious,  but  the  Viceroy  of  Naples  succeeded  in  assuaging 
his  wrath.  It  was  decided  that  Francis  I  should  be  shut  up 
in  Madrid  in  the  tower  known  as  the  Alcazar.  The  captive's 
journey  across  Spain  was  made  the  occasion  for  demonstrations 
of  respect  and  esteem  which  the  unfortunate  man  had  little 
expected.  He  was  everywhere  received  with  the  deepest 
sympathy  and  speeches  were  addressed  to  him  as  he  stood 
beneath  a  canopy.  He  made  his  entries  on  horseback  sur- 
rounded by  troops,  his  dignity,  in  reality  so  gravely  impaired, 
affording  a  sad  contrast  to  his  actual  position  as  a  prisoner 
kept  constantly  under  surveillance.  He  was  even  allowed 
to  hunt,  attend  bull-fights,  and  watch  festivities  held  in  his 
honour.  But  his  mind  was  tortured  by  the  knowledge  that 
Charles  V  absolutely  refused  to  see  him,  and  after  a  journey  upon 
which  he  had  been  surrounded  by  consoling  attentions,  his 
awakening  in  the  prison  of  the  Alcazar  was  indeed  a  rude  one. 
The  Alcazar  was  a  lofty  tower  in  Madrid  with  thick  walls  rising 
a  hundred  feet  above  the  ground ;  it  looked  out  upon  the 
dry  bed  of  the  Manzanares  and  the  vast  barren  plain  of  Castille 
beyond.  The  room  in  which  he  was  lodged  was  small  and 
bare,  and  sparsely  furnished  with  a  bed,  a  table,  and  some 
chests.  Hangings  adorned  with  the  fleur-de-lys  had  to  be 
brought  from  France  in  order  to  cover  and  lend  a  little  brightness 
to  the  dismal  walls.  The  only  window,  v/hich  was  barred, 
opened  from  an  embrasure  in  the  walls  so  deep  that  it  had 
been  possible  to  make  a  separate  room  of  it  by  glazing  it  on 
the  inside.  Such  was  the  place  in  which  the  unfortunate 
prince  was  doomed  to  spend  long  months  of  imprisonment 
without  distractions  or  outdoor  exercise  of  any  kind.  A  body- 
guard of  arquebusiers  guarded  him  below. 

Negotiations  were  re-opened,  but  they  were  long  and  painful. 
Louise  of  Savoy  had  sent  Jean  de  Sclve,  the  First  President  of 
Prolonged  the  Parliament  of  Paris,  and  Franyois  de  Tournon, 

negotiations.  Archbishop  of  Embrun,  to  discuss  matters  on 
behalf  of  the  Government.  They  had  instructions  to  re- 
nounce all  rights  over  Italy  and  the  suzerainty  of  Artois  and 

E  65 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

Flanders  ;  they  were  at  liberty  to  consider  a  proposal  of 
marriage  between  Francis  I,  whose  wife  Claude  was  now 
dead,  and  Eleonora,  the  sister  of  Charles  V  and  widow  of  the 
King  of  Portugal.  If  necessary  a  money  ransom  might  be 
paid  for  the  King's  release  ;  but  on  the  subject  of  Burgundy 
no  concession  was  to  be  made.  Charles  V  refused  to  accept 
a  ransom,  and  on  the  question  of  Burgundy  he  remained  firm. 
Nothing  on  earth  would  move  him.  It  was  his  property  and 
he  considered  himself  extremely  moderate  in  not  laying  claim 
to  all  that  was  his  due.  In  vain  did  the  two  ambassadors 
discuss,  reason,  and  plead  with  him.  The  Emperor,  who  was 
still  at  Toledo  with  his  council,  refused  to  yield.  The  negotia- 
tions had  to  be  suspended,  as  it  was  impossible  to  come  to  an 
understanding  on  such  a  basis. 

At  one  moment  it  seemed  likely  that  a  diversion  might  be 
caused  which  would  change  the  face  of  affairs.  Henry  VIII,  hurt 
by  the  fact  that  Charles  V  was  paying  no  heed  to  him  and  his 
interests,  accused  the  Emperor  of  ingratitude  and  arrogance. 
Louise  of  Savoy  profited  by  the  occasion  to  ask  him  to  make 
peace  in  return  for  a  sum  of  money  of  which  she  knew  he  was 
for  the  moment  urgently  in  need.  Henry  VIII  promptly 
accepted.  In  Italy,  moreover,  the  Italians  were  beginning  to 
think  that  Charles  V  was  growing  too  dangerously  powerful 
and  feared  that  he  would  entertain  the  ambition  of  making 
himself  absolute  master  of  the  peninsula  and  dominating  them. 
They  accordingly  combined.  Louise  of  Savoy  was  clever 
enough  to  suggest  that  they  should  come  to  an  understanding 
with  her  as  well.  She  was  ready  to  renounce  all  French  claims 
in  Italy;  her  only  stipulation  was  that  she  should  be  allowed 
to  put  Francesco  Sforza  on  the  throne  of  Milan.  It  was 
merely  a  question  of  driving  out  the  Imperialists.  The  Italians 
welcomed  these  terms  which  the  Pope,  Venice,  and  Florence 
signed.  The  Pope  even  went  so  far  as  to  offer  to  place  Pescara, 
Charles  V's  general,  on  the  throne  of  Naples  and  have  him 
crowned  King,  thus  depriving  the  Emperor  of  one  of  his  best 
soldiers.  But  moved  by  scruples  of  loyalty  and  honour  Pescara 
refused,  and  at  the  same  time  sent  a  warning  to  Charles  V.  The 
danger,  as  he  pointed  out,  was  extremely  great.  The  bribe  which 
he  had  refused  might  be  accepted  by  another,  in  which  case  the 
66 


THE    KING    AND    THE    EMPEROR 

Emperor  would  find  himself  involved  in  inextricable  difficulties  ! 
The  whole  of  Italy  was  declaring  against  him,  and  it  would  be 
better,  continued  Pescara,  to  come  to  terms  with  Francis  I,  and 
accede  to  his  original  proposals  ev*^n  at  the  cost  of  Burgundy, 
than  to  tempt  fortune.  Louise  of  Savoy  and  her  son  awaited 
his  decision  with  anxiety.  The  Emperor  replied  that  his  decision 
was  unalterable,  and  absolutely  refused  to  yield  an  inch  ! 

Deprived  of  the  physical  exercise  necessary  for  a  vigorous 
and  active  prince,  and  above  all  of  the  slightest  hope  of 
Illness  o!  ever  seeing  the  end  of  a  confinement  which  had 

Francis  I.  become  intolerable,  Francis  I  fell    ill   under  the 

crushing  effects  of  these  repeated  disappointments  and  his 
long  captivity.  He  was  seized  with  fever.  He  realized 
that  he  was  in  danger  and  in  a  few  days  the  disease  secured 
a  disquieting  hold  over  him  and  reduced  him  to  a  state  of 
prostration.  On  September  18,  1525,  after  a  period  of  three 
weeks,  he  became  unconscious  and  was  thought  to  be  dying. 
The  Emperor  was  seriously  alarmed,  and  realizing,  moreover,  that 
if  his  prisoner  were  to  die,  he  would  lose  his  case,  hurriedly  rode 
to  xhe  scene  bringing  with  him  the  best  doctors  he  could  find. 
He  arrived  at  Madrid  in  hot  haste  one  evening  at  nine  o'clock. 
Lannoy  and  Marshal  de  Montmorency  received  him  at  the 
Alcazar,  and  the  latter,  bearing  a  lighted  torch,  led  the  way  up  to 
the  sick  man's  chamber.  Charles  V  showed  the  utmost  afi'ection. 
He  kissed  Francis  I,  assuring  him  that  there  was  no  need  for 
him  to  torment  himself,  as  everything  could  be  arranged  between 
them,  and  telling  him  that  his  first  duty  was  to  get  well.  The 
French  King's  devoted  sister,  Margaret,  had  been  summoned 
from  France,  and  by  travelling  two  stages  at  a  time  she  managed 
to  arrive  at  Madrid  on  September  20.  Charles  V  went  to  meet 
her  at  the  bottom  of  the  stairs  in  the  Alcazar.  She  was  in 
tears.  He  kissed  her  and  endeavoured  to  console  her,  then 
conducted  her  to  her  brother  and  returned  to  Toledo,  ordering 
public  prayers  to  be  offered  on  the  King's  behalf. 

Francis,  however,  seemed  to  grow  worse.  For  three  days 
he  was  unconscious  and  the  doctors  declared  that  there  was 
Recovery  of  ^o  hope.  Margaret,  in  despair,  had  mass  cele- 
Francis  I.  brated  in  the  invalid's  room  by  the  Archbishop 

of  Embrun.     When  at  the  elevation  of  the  host  the  celebrant 

67 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

held  it  out  towards  Francis  I  for  adoration,  the  King,  to 
the  surprise  of  every  one,  half  opened  his  eyes.  They  tried 
to  make  him  receive  the  communion,  and  he  managed  to 
take  half  a  wafer,  of  which  Margaret  consumed  the  remaining 
portion.  It  is  possible  that  some  abscess  had  just  burst, 
but  contemporary  accounts  of  the  nature  of  his  illness  are 
rather  obscure.  From  that  time  forward  the  King  improved, 
though  he  remained  extremely  feeble.  But  his  strength 
seemed  to  return  from  day  to  day  and  finally  he  was  out 
of  danger. 

An  attempt  was  made  to  profit  by  the  presence  of  Margaret 
to  make  the  princess  re-open  the  negotiations  with  Charles  V 
Charles  V  and  ^^^  thus  turn  to  account  the  good  will  of  which 
Margaret  of  the  Emperor  had  just  given  evidence.  On 
Navarre.  October  3  Margaret  went  to  Toledo,  where  she 

was  courteously  received  by  Charles  V,  who  came  to  meet  her 
and  conducted  her  to  the  house  he  had  had  prepared  for  her. 
On  the  following  day  they  had  a  long  conversation  of  two  hours 
alone  together.  But  Margaret  found  her  host  as  inexorable 
as  ever.  She  proposed  a  marriage  between  her  brother  and 
Eleonora,  with  the  stipulation  that  the  bride  should  receive 
Burgundy  as  a  dowry  from  the  hands  of  the  Emperor,  an  arrange- 
ment which  would  imply  that  the  King  of  France  had  renounced 
his  ancient  rights  over  that  province,  but  held  it,  in  actual 
fact,  by  virtue  of  a  freshly  conferred  privilege.  Charles  V 
refused.  She  then  suggested  that  the  Parliament  of  Paris 
should  decide  the  question  at  issue.  Again  the  Emperor  refused. 
Moreover  he  insisted  upon  every  one  of  the  conditions  he  had 
already  demanded — the  renunciation  of  Italy  and  Flanders, 
the  re-installation  of  Bourbon  in  the  whole  of  his  territory, 
with  the  addition  of  Provence,  and  the  promise  that,  once 
peace  was  made,  Francis  I  should  accompany  the  Emperor 
against  the  Turks.  He  considered  himself  generous  in  not 
demanding  a  ransom.  Margaret  had  failed  !  There  was  nothing 
more  to  be  done,  and  on  October  13  she  left  Toledo. 

In  a  fit  of  temper  caused  by  the  Emperor's  inflexible  ani- 
mosity and  the  barren  result  of  the  conciliatory  feeling  he 
had  displayed  during  his  illness,  Francis  I  made  a  desperate 
resolve.  He  decided  to  abdicate  and  thus  leave  merely  a 
68 


THE    KING    AND    THE    EMPEROR 

worthless  prisoner  in  the  hands  of  his  adversary.  He  accordingly 
abdicated  in  favour  of  the  Dauphin.  This  step  terrified  the 
Emperor's  counsellors,  who  advised  their  sovereign  to  give  in. 
Pescara  reiterated  his  warnings  about  the  dangerous  state  of 
Italy.  Louis  de  Bruges,  Sieur  of  Praet,  Charles  V's  ambassador 
in  France,  wrote  saying  that  it  would  be  wiser  not  to  insist 
upon  all  his  terms.  Charles  V  turned  a  deaf  ear  to  everybody. 
The  abdication  left  him  cold.  Its  only  result  was  that  as  he 
no  longer  had  a  King  of  France  in  his  hands,  he  seemed  disposed 
to  make  his  prisoner's  captivity  less  strict. 

Francis  I  thereupon  tried  to  make  his  escape.  He  had  a 
negro  to  wait  upon  him  and  keep  up  his  fire.  This  man  was 
Francis  I  tries  bribed,  and  it  was  arranged  that  the  King  should 
to  escape.  change  clothes  with  him,   blacken  his  face  and 

one  evening  at  dusk  take  flight.  Relays  of  horses  were 
to  be  held  in  readiness.  But,  unfortunately,  a  valet,  who 
had  a  grudge  against  Montmorency  for  having  once  taken 
him  to  task,  betrayed  the  whole  plot,  with  the  result  that 
the  King  was  more  closely  watched. 

Meanwhile,  in  France,  Louise  of  Savoy,  seeing  month  after 
month  pass  by  without  bringing  any  solution,  began  to  lose 
The  Treaty  heart.  It  was  impossible  for  the  kingdom  to 
oJ  Madrid,  remain  indefinitely  without  a  master.  The  King's 
1526.  presence   was   becoming  more  and  more  urgent, 

and  she  herself  felt  she  had  not  the  strength  to  assume  the 
unlimited  responsibilities  of  government  indefinitely.  What 
was  the  point  at  issue  ?  After  all,  the  whole  quarrel  was 
over  the  matter  of  a  single  province.  Was  the  destiny  of 
all  France  to  hang  upon  one  province  ?  Would  not  the  evils 
entailed  be  far  greater  than  the  loss  of  a  mere  duchy  ?  Had 
not  John  the  Good  sacrificed  far  more  in  order  to  regain  his 
liberty  ?  Louise  eventually  made  up  her  mind  to  give  in  and 
to  renounce  Burgundy,  and  sent  Chabot  de  Brion  to  Madrid 
to  make  known  her  resolve.  Francis  I,  whose  courage  had  com- 
pletely ebbed,  bowed  his  head  to  the  inevitable,  and  the  French 
plenipotentiaries,  the  Archbishop  of  Embrun,  Jean  de  Selve, 
and  Chabot  de  Brion  met  the  Spanish  envoys  Lannoy,  Ugo 
de  Moncada  and  Jean  Lallemand  in  conclave.  Francis  I 
insisted   upon   marrying   Eleonora.     She    had   been   promised 

69 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

to  Charles  of  Bourbon  and  the  latter  was  angry  at  the  demand. 
In  order  to  solve  the  difficulty  Charles  V  asked  the  young  widow 
her  opinion  on  the  subject  and  she  replied  that  she  would  prefer 
to  be  Queen  of  France.  Gattinara,  the  imperial  Chancellor, 
moved  that,  pending  the  actual  surrender  of  Burgundy,  Francis  I 
should  be  kept  prisoner.  Whereupon  the  latter  offered  to  give 
his  two  sons  as  hostages  for  his  word,  a  proposal  accepted  by 
Charles  V.  The  final  clause  of  this  grievous  treaty  was  com- 
pleted on  December  19,  and  by  it  a  stipulation  was  made  that 
the  King  of  France  should  have  the  agreement  ratified  by  the 
States-General  and  the  various  Parliaments  of  the  country 
within  four  months.  January  14  was  fixed  for  the  solemn 
signing  of  the  treaty. 

On  the  evening  before  this  day  Francis  I  assembled  in  his 
room  at  the  fortress  all  the  French  plenipotentiaries — ^the 
President  de  Selve,  the  Archbishop  of  Embrun,  and  Chabot 
de  Brion,  together  with  Marshal  de  Montmorency,  the  Provost 
of  Paris,  who  happened  to  be  on  the  spot,  and  his  own  private 
secretary.  In  firm  accents  he  declared  to  them  that  his  action 
of  the  morrow  had  been  wrung  from  him  by  force.  He  pro- 
tested against  this  use  of  force  and  considered  that  it  annulled 
the  obligations  demanded  of  him  in  advance,  for  these  obligations 
were  a  menace  to  the  rights  of  the  Crown,  prejudicial  to  the 
interests  of  his  country,  and  injurious  to  his  honour.  The 
Emperor  was  making  exorbitant  demands  upon  him  which 
it  was  impossible  for  him  to  fulfil.  He  was  yielding  from 
necessity,  but  he  called  upon  God  and  every  one  present  to  witness 
that  inasmuch  as  he  was  not  a  free  man  he  regarded  the  pro- 
mises he  was  about  to  make  as  non-existent,  null  and  void. 

On  the  following  day,  after  mass  had  been  celebrated 
by  the  Archbishop  of  Embrun,  both  parties  signed  the  treaty. 
Signing  of  Charles  V,  who  did  not  trouble  to  attend  in  person, 

the  Treaty.  was  represented  by  the  Spanish  plenipotentiaries. 
Francis  I  swore  upon  the  Gospels  to  keep  the  treaty  and 
the  French  negotiators  in  their  turn  likewise  took  the  oath. 
Only  on  February  11,  after  an  interval  of  almost  a  month,  did 
the  Emperor  ratify  it.  The  betrothal  of  the  King  of  France 
to  Eleonora  was  solemnized,  but  he  was  kept  in  prison  to 
await  the  arrival  of  his  sons  to  take  his  place.  The  utmost 
70 


THE    KING    AND    THE    EMPEROR 

he  was  allowed  was  a  certain  freedom  to  go  to  mass,  but 
even  on  these  occasions  he  was  always  strictly  guarded.  At 
length  Charles  V  decided  to  pay  his  fallen  foe  a  visit.  He 
came  dressed  in  black  velvet  with  an  escort  of  250  horsemen, 
and  Francis  I  went  to  meet  him  on  the  bridge  of  the  Manzanares 
mounted  upon  a  richly  caparisoned  mule.  The  interview 
between  the  two  princes  was  conducted  with  great  courtesy. 
They  supped  together  and  had  a  long  conversation.  On 
February  16,  upon  the  King  expressing  a  desire  to  see  his  bride 
elect,  the  two  monarchs  went  to  the  castle  of  Illescas,  near 
Toledo,  where  the  princess  was  staying.  Francis  I  was  exceed- 
ingly amiable.  A  festival  was  given  at  which  Eleonora  per- 
formed a  Spanish  dance  wdth  much  grace,  and  finally,  on 
February  19,  the  King  and  the  Emperor  bade  each  other  adieu, 
the  latter  in  order  to  go  to  Seville  for  his  marriage  with  the 
Infanta  of  Portugal,  and  Francis  I,  who  had  at  last  been  given 
leave  to  depart,  to  make  his  way  to  the  French  frontier,  where 
he  was  to  regain  his  liberty.  Before  parting,  however,  Charles  V 
was  seized  with  qualms  of  doubt.  "  Give  me  your  word," 
he  said  to  Francis  I,  "that  you  will  faithfully  fulfil  your  pledges." 
"  I  swear  to  you  that  I  will  keep  my  word,"  the  King  replied. 
They  then  saluted  each  other  and  parted. 

On  February  21  Francis  finally  turned  his  back  upon 
Madrid  and  the  dismal  fortress  in  which  for  six  long  months 
Release  of  he    had    suffered    so    much   physical    and    moral 

Francis  I.  agony.     Another   month  was  required  to  reach 

the  frontier.  He  was  still  closely  guarded  and  infinite  pains 
were  taken  to  ensure  that  the  King  should  be  replaced 
by  his  sons  at  a  meeting-place  on  the  Bidassoa  between 
Hendaye  and  Fontarabia.  Here  Louise  of  Savoy  had  sent 
the  little  princes  of  eight  and  a  half  and  seven  years  old 
respectively — the  latter  the  future  King  Henry  II — in  the  care  of 
Lautrec.  On  March  17  at  seven  o'clock  in  the  morning,  in 
the  presence  of  two  bodies  of  troops  representing  France  and 
Spain,  who  occupied  either  bank,  the  King  and  his  sons,  borne 
in  two  boats  containing  an  equal  number  of  rowers  and  pas- 
sengers, were  exchanged  in  the  middle  of  the  river  on  crossing 
an  empty  landing-stage  which  had  been  erected  in  the  water. 
As  he  placed  his  foot  on  French  soil  Francis  I  exclaimed  :  "  I 

71 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

am  a  King  again  !  "  He  then  mounted  his  horse  and  rode 
quickly  to  Bayonne  where  in  the  great  church  of  the  city  he 
returned  a  solemn  thanksgiving  to  the  Almighty. 

Up  to  this  moment  the  clauses  of  the  treaty  had  been  kept 
secret.  They  were  now  made  public,  and  their  extreme  charac- 
ter aroused  universal  indignation.  In  Italy,  over  which  the 
document  in  question  proclaimed  the  Emperor's  hegemony, 
the  voice  of  discontent  was  unanimous.  The  Pope  gave  vent  to 
the  opinion  that  there  was  no  ground  for  regarding  as  valid 
an  agreement  which  had  been  extracted  under  constraint,  an 
agreement;  moreover,  which  placed  the  King  of  Spain  "  upon 
the  throne  of  Christendom."  Henry  VIII  was  of  the  same 
mind,  whilst  in  France  the  general  outburst  of  fury  reached 
its  height.  States,  Parliaments,  and  nobility  all  raised  a 
concert  of  vehement  protestation. 

Francis  I,  by  the  terms  of  the  treaty,  had  bound  himself 
to  ratify  it  the  moment  he  was  free.  He  did  nothing  of  the 
Francis  I.  kind,  however,  and  when  the  imperial  ambassador 

repudiates  the  came  to  remind  him  of  this  obligation,  he  evaded 
Treaty.  the    question    by    giving    dilatory    answers    and 

excusing  himself  on  the  ground  that  opposition  was  breaking 
out  in  every  quarter  and  that  it  was  necessary  for  him  at 
least  to  consult  the  States  of  Burgundy,  the  province  chiefly 
affected.  Charles  V,  who  was  extremely  busy,  sent  Lannoy 
to  the  King  of  France  to  insist  upon  his  keeping  his  word 
and  to  bring  home  to  him  the  argument  that  as  he  was  an 
absolute  monarch  it  was  unnecessary  for  him  to  pay  any 
attention  to  the  arguments  of  his  subjects.  Lannoy  reached 
Cognac,  where  Francis  I  arrived  on  May  8.  On  May  10,  accom- 
panied by  the  ordinary  ambassador,  Louis  de  Praet,  he  was 
given  an  audience  before  the  King's  council,  at  which  he  was 
officially  informed,  without  much  beating  about  the  bush, 
by  the  French  Chancellor,  Duprat,  in  the  name  of  the  Govern- 
ment, that  it  was  impossible  to  separate  Burgundy  from  France. 
Then  Francis  I,  in  his  turn,  addressed  them,  and  declared 
that  inasmuch  as  his  word  had  been  wrested  from  him  in  Madrid 
at  a  moment  when  he  had  no  freedom  whatever,  his  promise 
was  null  and  void,  and  that  he  consequently  regarded  himself 
as  free  from  all  obligation.  Nevertheless,  he  was  desirous  of 
72 


THE    KING    AND    THE    EMPEROR 

living  in  peace  and  concord  with  the  Emperor,  and  apart  from 
this  matter,  counted  upon  fulfilHng  all  such  clauses  of  the  treaty 
as  allowed  of  fulfilment.  Charles  V's  envoys  made  no  reply. 
They  merely  bowed  and  withdrew.  Francis  I  without  further 
delay  profited  by  the  terror  with  which  the  menacing  spectre 
of  "a  monarchy  of  all  Christendom "  inspired  the  Italians, 
The  Holy  ^^   3°^"^   ^^   alliance   formed   under  the   aegis   of 

League  of  Pope  Clement  VII — the  Holy  League  of  Cognac. 

Cognac.  And  the  alhes  thereupon  prepared  for  war. 

Charles  V  was  in  Seville,  where  his  marriage  with  the  Infanta 
of  Portugal  had  just  taken  place,  when  he  received  the  news 
of  these  events.  So  the  Treaty  of  Madrid  had  been  repudiated 
and  torn  in  two,  and  Italy  stirred  up  against  him  !  It  was  a 
violent  blow.  After  securing  so  fair  a  prospect,  to  lose  all  in 
this  way  !  The  English  ambassador  wrote  to  his  master  that 
the  Emperor  "  remained  in  retirement  plunged  in  silence,  often 
spending  three  or  four  consecutive  hours  alone  with  his  own 
thoughts."  Charles  V  now  had  to  start  afresh  from  the  very 
beginning.  He  had  hoped  to  turn  his  attention  to  Germany, 
where  Lutheranism  was  spreading,  and  the  advance  of  the 
Turks  was  threatening ;  but  he  was  now  forced  to  return  to 
Italy.  He  gave  orders  for  the  French  King's  sons  to  be  put 
into  strict  confinement.  The  little  princes  were  shamefully 
treated  by  the  brutal  soldiers  to  whom  they  were  entrusted. 
They  were  dragged  from  one  fortress  to  another,  imprisoned 
behind  barred  windows  in  dark  bare  rooms,  cut  off  from  all 
French  society,  miserably  clad,  and  were  altogether  pitiable 
to  behold. 

The  Papal  forces,  together  with  those  of  Venice  and  the  other 
confederates,  began  to  concentrate  in  Italy.  The  Pope  informed 
the  Emperor  of  the  existence  of  the  Holy  League,  and  the  French 
ambassador,  Jean  de  Calvimont,  President  of  the  Parliament 
of  Bordeaux,  was  sent  with  a  similar  mission  from  Francis  I. 
He  demanded  from  Charles  V  the  renunciation  of  Burgundy  and 
the  return  of  the  French  princes  upon  payment  of  a  ransom. 
"  Your  master,"  replied  Charles  V  to  Calvimont,  "  has  deceived 
me.  I  shall  never  again  trust  his  word.  His  behaviour  is 
not  that  of  a  knight  and  a  gentleman  !  "  The  children  he  refused 
to   give   up   at   any   price.     Nevertheless  he   endeavoured   to 

73 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

turn  aside  the  blast  by  separating  the  ItaHans  from  Francis  I. 
He  made  persistent  overtures  to  Clement  VII,  using  all  manner 
of  inducements  and  threats.  But  in  vain.  The  menace  of  im- 
perial domination  was  too  great.  And  meanwhile  the  excesses 
of  his  representatives  in  Italy  were  making  matters  worse  for 
his  cause. 

In  Rome,  Ugo  di  Moncada,  the  imperial  delegate,  had 
come  to  an  understanding  with  the  Colonna  family,  who  were  at 
enmity  with  the  Pope.  These  latter  raised  a  tumult  which 
degenerated  into  frightful  disorder,  during  which  the  Vatican 
was  carried  by  assault,  pillaged  and  sacked.  The  Pope  was 
obliged  to  seek  refuge  in  the  Castle  of  St.  Angelo  where  they 
forced  him  to  sign  an  agreement  to  withdraw  from  the  League. 
This  event  aroused  the  indignation  of  Europe,  and  Charles  V 
himself  was  extremely  annoyed  by  an  escapade  which  was  a 
scandalous  act  of  barbarism.  It  was  not,  moreover,  destined 
to  be  unique  of  its  kind. 

The  Emperor  had  sent  Charles  of  Bourbon  to  the  north 
of  Italy  to  take  over  the  command  of  an  army  which  was  being 
Sack  o!  Rome  raised  there  by  recruiting  mercenaries  from  all 
by  the  Im-  quarters — Italy,  Spain,  and  Germany — a  violent 

perialists,  1527.  mob  of  hirelings  inspired  by  no  faith  and  governed 
by  no  law.  Bourbon  made  for  central  Italy,  but  he  had 
no  money,  and  his  soldiers,  seething  with  discontent,  were 
demanding  their  pay.  Moreover  a  perpetual  downfall  of  rain 
was  soaking  these  miserable  and  frenzied  desperadoes,  who 
had  neither  clothes,  shoes,  nor  provisions.  They  were  in  a 
constant  state  of  mutiny  and  Bourbon  barely  escaped  with 
his  life.  In  order  to  calm  them  he  was  foolish  enough  to  dazzle 
their  eyes  by  the  prospect  of  towns  to  be  sacked,  and  even 
breathed  the  name  of  Rome.  With  one  accord  the  imperial 
army,  beside  themselves  at  the  idea,  insisted  upon  marching 
on  Rome  against  the  Pope,  who  had  rejoined  the  League. 
There  was  no  help  for  it,  and  Bourbon  grimly  faced  the  in- 
evitable. He  made  a  rush  through  the  valley  of  the  Arno, 
and  on  Monday,  May  6,  1527,  the  imperial  hordes  attacked 
the  Eternal  City  in  the  Borgo  quarter.  As  he  was  attempting 
to  scale  the  walls  Charles  of  Bourbon  was  mortally  wounded 
by  a  bullet.  He  was  carried  to  a  neighbouring  chapel  where 
74 


THE    KING    AND    THE    EMPEROR 

he  just  had  time  to  make  his  confession  and  receive  the  sacra- 
ment before  he  died.  The  Borgo  was  captured  and  after  it 
the  rest  of  the  city.  A  week  of  horrible  carnage  followed. 
The  Lutheran  lansquenets  threw  off  all  restraint ;  murder, 
arson,  and  sacrilege  were  rife.  Over  4000  people  were  put  to 
the  sword.  The  Pope,  who  had  shut  himself  up  in  the  Castle 
of  St.  Angelo,  capitulated  together  with  thirteen  cardinals, 
and  was  kept  a  prisoner  in  the  hands  of  Alarcon,  the  Spanish 
captain  who  had  once  had  charge  of  Francis  I.  Happy 
the  Emperor  who  had  had  both  the  Pope  and  the  King 
of  France  prisoners  in  his  power  !  The  sack  of  Rome, 
however,  caused  universal  horror  throughout  Christendom, 
and  when,  by  command  of  Francis  I,  Lautrec  descended 
upon  Italy  with  an  army  of  40,000  men  for  the  deliverance 
of  the  Pope,  he  was  everywhere  greeted  with  acclamations 
of  joy. 

But  alas  !  Lautrec's  new  campaign  was  doomed,  like  its  pre- 
decessors, to  a  disastrous  termination.  After  winning  back 
the  valley  of  the  Po  from  the  Imperialists  without  striking  a 
blow,  Lautrec  marched  upon  Rome.  Charles  V,  by  a  bold  stroke 
of  policy,  ordered  the  Sovereign  Pontiff  to  be  liberated  upon 
payment  of  a  ransom  of  368,000  crowns.  A  French  herald 
at  arms  was  thereupon  dispatched  to  Spain  to  make  an  official 
declaration  of  war  against  the  Emperor.  Charles  V  received 
him  sitting  upon  his  throne  and  surrounded  by  all  his  Court, 
when  with  profound  solemnity  he  replied  that  as  the  King  of 
France  had  broken  his  faith  he  was  a  "  coward  "  and  that  if 
he  wished  to  "gainsay  the  same  he  would  prove  it  to  him  man 
to  man."  This  was  a  challenge.  When  the  herald  returned 
to  France  with  this  reply  Francis  I  also  sat  upon  his  throne 
surrounded  by  all  his  Court,  and  with  equal  solemnity  gave 
audience  to  the  Spanish  ambassador,  Granvelle.  Reminding 
him  of  the  terms  of  the  insult  which  Charles  V  had  hurled 
at  him,  he  charged  Granvelle  to  tell  his  master  that  "  he  lied 
in  his  throat  "  and  to  challenge  him  to  a  duel.  A  contest  in 
the  lists  between  these  two  monarchs  would  have  provided  a 
strange  epilogue  indeed  to  the  drama !  But  although  the 
Emperor  retorted  that  his  adversary  was  himself  a  "  liar  " 
and  consented  to  meet  him  on  the  Bidassoa,  the  duel  was  never 

75 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

fought.  Minor  obstacles  were  raised,  but,  as  a  matter  of  fact, 
neither  side  was  really  anxious  for  it  to  take  place. 

Meanwhile  Lautrec  pushed  forward  in  Italy,  occupied  the 
Papal  States,  and  conquered  the  Kingdom  of  Naples  without 
The  French  encountering  much  resistance.  He  laid  siege 
driven  from  to  the  city  itself,  and  might  have  succeeded  in 
Italy.  capturing  it,  as  the  sea  was  in  the  hands  of  one 

of  the  cleverest  and  most  famous  admirals  of  the  day — 
the  Genoese  Andrea  Doria,  who  had  for  some  time  been 
in  the  service  of  Francis  I.  Unfortunately  the  latter  had 
offended  him  by  various  ill-considered  acts  and  irritated  him 
by  injudicious  threats,  with  the  result  that  Doria,  deeply  mor- 
tified, had  gone  over  to  the  Emperor.  Naples  was  re-victualled 
and  put  in  a  position  to  hold  out  against  a  siege,  and  the  French 
army,  as  usual,  gradually  melted  away,  decimated  by  plague, 
famine,  and  lack  of  funds.  Lautrec  himself  fell  ill  and  died 
and  the  remnant  of  his  troops — less  than  10,000  men — took  their 
departure  and  wandered  about  until  they  were  made  prisoners 
in  Aversa.  This  fresh  attempt  had  resulted  in  utter  failure 
and  the  whole  of  Italy  remained  in  the  hands  of  the  Emperor. 

Louise  of  Savoy  then  attempted  to  use  her  influence  in  order 
to  make  peace  between  her  son  and  Charles  V.  The  contest 
The  Peace  of  h^^d  now  dragged  on  for  eight  years,  and  there 
Cambray,  1529.  must  surely  be  some  means  of  putting  an  end 
to  it.  She  approached  the  Emperor's  aunt,  the  Arch- 
duchess Margaret,  who  was  Governor  of  the  Netherlands,  and 
the  latter  consented  to  do  her  best.  The  two  princesses 
settled  the  basis  upon  which  a  settlement  could  be  reached. 
The  terms  were  the  same  as  before.  France  was  to  renounce 
all  right  over  Italy,  Flanders,  and  Artois,  but  Margaret  was 
begged  to  induce  Charles  V  to  give  up  Burgundy.  Twenty 
times  over  the  negotiations  were  almost  broken  off,  but,  by 
dint  of  patience,  the  Archduchess  succeeded  in  convincing 
her  imperial  nephew  that  the  wisest  course  was  to  give  up  the 
province  of  Burgundy,  which  France  would  never,  on  any 
consideration,  consent  to  relinquish,  and  remain  the  undisputed 
master  of  Italy,  which  would  otherwise  be  constantly  rising 
up  against  him.  Charles  V,  with  infinite  difficulty,  was  at  last 
induced  to  consent.     He  agreed  to  give  back  the  French  King's 

7e 


THE    KING    AND    THE    EMPEROR 

sons  for  a  ransom  of  two  million  gold  crowns.  The  two  prin- 
cesses had  held  their  discussions  at  Cambray,  and  the  peace 
was  accordingly  named  the  Peace  of  Cambray  or  the  "  Ladies' 
Peace  "  after  its  authors.  It  was  signed  on  August  3,  1529. 
When  the  little  princes  returned  from  Spain  and  described 
the  treatment  they  had  received,  Francis  I  was  furious.  His 
children's  sufferings,  together  with  the  remembrance  of  all 
he  had  himself  endured  at  Madrid,  left  in  his  breast  an  in- 
vincible hatred  for  his  implacable  foe.  He  signed  the  peace, 
but  only  whilst  awaiting  an  opportunity  for  making  a  war  of 
revenge.  The  events  which  had  taken  place,  wrote  the  Venetian 
ambassador,  Giustiniano,  had  so  "  roused  the  hatred  of  the 
King  and  exasperated  him  that  he  never  mentioned  these 
matters  without  showing  violent  anger  and  an  unquenchable 
thirst  for  vengeance." 

But  on  this  occasion  Francis  I  meant  to  take  his  time.  He 
would  make  his  preparations  slowly  and  to  good  purpose. 
Francis  I.  ^^  ^^^'  i^oi'^over,  necessary  to  give  his  kingdom 

makes  fresh  a  breathing-space.  He  entered  upon  a  long 
preparations  campaign  of  diplomacy  calculated  to  place  the 
for  war.  Emperor  gradually  in  a  position  of  political  isola- 

tion. French  envoys  were  sent  to  solicit  the  various  Italian 
states,  the  Pope,  and  the  King  of  England ;  they  found 
the  ground  well  prepared.  The  imperial  omnipotence  which 
overshadowed  Europe  was  a  veritable  nightmare  to  all  who 
had  reason  to  fear  they  might  become  its  victims.  Clement 
VII,  especially,  and  his  cardinals,  who  had  terrified  recollec- 
tions of  the  sack  of  Rome,  were  ready  for  any  alliance  against 
their  hated  adversary.  So  friendly  were  they  that  a  marriage 
was  even  arranged  between  Francis  I's  son,  the  future  King 
Henry  II,  and  a  distant  cousin  of  the  Pope,  Catherine,  Duchess 
of  Urbino.  This  Catherine  was  none  other  than  the  famous 
Catherine  de'  Medici,  daughter  of  Lorenzo  de'  Medici,  who 
at  this  time  was  but  thirteen  years  old,  the  same  age  as  the 
young  prince  to  whom  she  was  betrothed.  An  interview  took 
place  at  Marseilles  between  Clement  VII  and  Francis  I,  at 
which  the  latter  kept  recurring  to  the  ever-vexed  question  of 
the  Duchy  of  Milan,  with  the  result  that  the  Pope  gave  his 
consent  to  the  King's  re-conquest  of  the  lost  province. 

77 


CENTURY    OF   THE    RENAISSANCE 

An  interview  also  took  place  with  Henry  VIII,  and  in  return 
for  a  sum  of  money  that  self-seeking  and  greedy  monarch 
consented  to  follow  any  line  of  policy  desired.  Thus  the  alliance 
was  set  on  a  firm  basis. 

This  time  Francis  I  went  even  further,  and  attempted 
to  win  the  support  of  the  German  princes  who  were  hostile 
French  *^  ^^^  Emperor.     In  the  midst  of  the  struggles 

alliance  with  occasioned  by  the  growth  of  Lutheranism,  the 
the  Protestants  German  princes  who  upheld  the  new  doctrines 
and  Turks.  jja(j  been  obliged  in  1530  to  form  a  league  at 

Schmalkalden  in  order  to  defend  themselves  against  the  designs 
of  Charles  V  and  the  Catholic  princes.  His  Most  Christian 
Majesty,  however,  had  the  boldness  to  propose  making  common 
cause  with  them.  They  accepted.  And  why  not  ?  since  the 
theologians  had  explained  to  Francis  I  that  "natural  right 
and  the  canons  of  the  Church  allowed  a  man  to  make  use 
of  any  means  of  defence  "  if  he  were  gravely  menaced.  By 
virtue  of  this  principle  Francis  I  went  even  further  and 
had  recourse  to  the  Turks  themselves — a  daring  innovation  ! 
For  the  first  time  the  Sultan  entered  the  concert  of  European 
Powers.  Francis  I  dispatched  Rincon  to  Constantinople  in 
order  to  see  how  the  land  lay.  In  1534  Khair  Eddin 
Barbarossa,  a  Turkish  admiral,  came  on  a  mission  to  France, 
and  in  1535  a  second  French  ambassador.  La  Forest,  pre- 
sented himself  at  the  Court  of  the  Grand  Turk,  Solyman. 
This  act  laid  the  foundations  of  a  connexion  destined  to  last 
to  this  day.  Europe  was  taken  by  surprise.  "  The  French 
people,"  wrote  one  of  the  Italian  ambassadors,  "consider 
this  alliance  as  shameful  as  it  really  is"  .  .  .  "an  ignomini- 
ous blot."  An  unconscious  feeling  having  sprung  up  that 
a  balance  of  power  was  necessary  in  Europe,  the  use  of 
any  efficacious  means  to  this  end,  regardless  of  anything 
but  political  expediency,  seems  to  have  been  accepted  as  its 
corollary. 

In  addition  to  political  innovations  the  government  of 
Francis  I  made  various  alterations  in  military  matters.  Under 
the  old  system  of  recruiting,  a  captain  was  entrusted  with  the 
charge  of  raising  a  force  of  300  men  whom  he  might  have  to 
take  anywhere,  frequently  to  foreign  lands.  On  July  24,  1534, 
78 


THE    KING    AND    THE    EMPEROR 

following  the  ancient  Roman  system,  seven  legions  of  infantry 
were  created,  each  containing  six  companies  of  1000  men. 
These  seven  legions  were  appointed  respectively  to  each  of 
the  seven  provinces  of  Normandy,  Burgundy,  Languedoc, 
Brittany,  Picardy,  Dauphiny,  and  Guyenne.  This  made  a  sum 
total  of  42,000  infantry,  of  which  30,000  were  armed  with  pikes 
and  halberds,  and  the  rest  with  arquebuses,  forming  the  nucleus 
of  the  old  French  regiments. 

When  everything  was  ready,  the  death  in  1535  of  Francesco 
Sforza,  Duke  of  Milan,  afforded  Francis  I  a  pretext  for  taking 
Re-opening  of  ^P  Q-mis  against  the  Emperor  once  more.  He 
hostilities,  laid  claim  to  Milan,  and  when  Charles  III,  Duke 

1535.  of  Savoy,  raised  difficulties,  he  began  operations 

by  occupying  Savoy  and  Piedmont,  which  were  invaded  by 
Admiral  Chabot  de  Brion.  Charles  V  had  not  failed  to  realize 
as  soon  as  the  Peace  of  Cambray  was  signed,  that  the  war 
had  merely  been  interrupted.  He  had  been  informed  of  his  ad- 
versary's diplomatic  campaigns  and  the  success  which  attended 
them,  and,  profoundly  irritated,  had  also  made  military  pre- 
parations. He  faced  the  war  resolutely,  and  with  50,000 
men  crossed  the  Alps  in  1536  and  invaded  Provence,  deter- 
mined to  capture  Marseilles.  The  French  army  which  had 
been  told  off  to  keep  him  in  check,  had  been  placed  under  the 
command  of  Anne  de  Montmorency,  a  prudent  and  cautious 
soldier.  He  avoided  an  encounter  with  the  imperial  forces, 
and  systematically  laid  bare  the  whole  country  before  the 
invader,  burying  the  corn  and  wine  and  destroying  the  mills, 
so  that  when  the  Emperor's  army  advanced  it  found  no  food. 
Aix  was  pillaged,  but  Marseilles,  Aries,  and  Tarascon,  strongly 
fortified  and  armed,  and  with  an  ample  supply  of  provisions 
and  soldiers,  awaited  the  enemy.  Charles  V  hurled  himself 
upon  these  barriers,  whilst  Montmorency  kept  watching  over 
him  from  the  Rhone.  The  Emperor  attempted  the  impossible 
in  trying  to  take  Marseilles,  which  held  out  against  him.  His 
army  was  dying  of  hunger  and  crumbling  away.  After  a 
campaign  of  two  months,  during  the  whole  of  which  Mont- 
morency remained  immovable  in  his  camp  at  La  Durance, 
Charles  V  decided  to  beat  a  miserable  retreat  to  Italy  without 
having  accomplished  anything. 

79 


CENTURY    OF   THE    RENAISSANCE 

Things  then  dragged  on  in  a  state  of  impotence  and  general 
lassitude  on  both  sides.  Anne  de  Montmorency,  put  on  his 
Truce  of  mettle   by  the  success   of  his   defensive  tactics, 

Mon9on,  1537.  forced  the  Pas  de  Suse  by  a  brilliant  attack  in 
which  he  was  accompanied  by  the  Dauphin,  Henry.  But  on 
November  16,  1537,  the  two  adversaries,  unable  to  accomplish 
anything,  signed  a  three  months'  truce  at  Mon9on  on  the  basis 
of  the  statu  quo.  What  was  it  possible  for  either  side  to  do  ? 
It  was  arranged  that  an  interview  should  take  place  between 
the  Emperor,  the  Pope,  and  the  King  of  France,  at  which  an 
attempt  would  be  made  once  more  to  restore  peace.  But  at 
the  meeting  in  1538  it  was  admitted  that  it  was  impossible 
to  agree  upon  any  definite  plan.  A  fresh  truce  was  signed, 
this  time  for  ten  years,  by  the  terms  of  which  Francis  was 
temporarily  to  keep  Savoy  and  the  Emperor  Milan,  and  a 
short  lull  followed  upon  the  preceding  period  of  hatred  and 
hostility. 

The  lull,  indeed,  was  of  such  a  nature  that  when,  in  the 
following  year  the  people  of  Ghent  rebelled  against  their 
sovereign,  and  Charles  V,  in  difficulties  about  reaching  Flanders, 
ventured  to  ask  Francis  I  to  allow  him  to  cross  France,  the 
latter  gave  permission  with  alacrity.  By  his  orders  the  detested 
monarch  was  everywhere  given  a  cordial  and  sumptuous  re- 
ception, showing  how  perfectly  the  French  could  practise  the 
chivalrous  virtue  of  courteous  hospitality.  At  Bordeaux, 
Poitiers,  Chatellerault,  Blois,  and  Orleans  there  was  a  constant 
succession  of  triumphal  arches,  speech-making,  and  festivities 
of  all  sorts.  In  a  spirit  of  bravado  directed  against  his  anxious 
counsellors  who  predicted  terrible  disasters,  the  Emperor  was 
accompanied  by  an  escort  of  only  20  or  25  nobles  and  50  horse- 
men. He  made  his  entry  into  Paris  with  great  magnificence, 
and  was  lodged  at  the  Louvre,  from  which  he  attended 
a  series  of  banquets  and  jousts.  He  was  thus  enabled  to 
reach  Flanders  without  difficulty.  The  French  people  had 
received  him  with  smiles  and  gracious  words,  but  in  their 
hearts  three  wounds  still  remained  unhealed :  the  remem- 
brance of  the  hardships  of  Madrid,  the  fear  of  the 
Emperor's  overpowering  influence  in  Europe,  and  regret  for 
the  loss  of  Milan. 
80 


THE    KING    AND    THE    EMPEROR 

Consequently  when,  five  years  later,  in  1544,  Rincon  and 
Fregose,  two  French  ambassadors,  were  treacherously  murdered 
Fresh  rupture,  on  the  banks  of  the  Po  by  some  of  the  Emperor's 
1544.  soldiers,  Francis  I  profited  by  the  occasion  once 

more  to  break  with  his  hated  enemy  and  attack  him.  A 
young  prince,  the  Due  d'Enghien,  the  brother  of  Antoine  de 
Battle  o£  Bourbon,  King  of  Navarre,  and  uncle  of  the  future 

Cerisola.  Henry  IV,   was  placed  at  the  head  of  an  army 

which  crossed  the  Alps  and  on  April  14,  1544,  gained  a  brilliant 
victory  at  Cerisola  over  the  Emperor's  general  Del  Guasto. 
Every  student  of  history  is  familiar  with  the  spirited  account 
given  by  Monluc,  who  was  with  the  French  forces,  of 
how  he  was  sent  to  France  to  ask  leave  to  give  battle,  and 
the  difficulty  he  had  in  gaining  the  consent  of  the  Council, 
in  spite  of  his  southern  fire  and  eloquence  which  fascinated 
Francis  I ;  also  with  his  description  of  that  magnificent  feat 
of  arms.  After  a  few  abortive  attempts  to  open  a  campaign  on 
the  northern  and  southern  frontiers,  in  Picardy  and  Lorraine, 
the  two  monarchs  concluded  a  fresh  peace — the  Peace  of  Soissons 
Treaty  of  o^  Crepy-en-Valois — by  the  terms  of  which  Charles, 

Crepy,  1544.  Duke  of  Angouleme,  the  King's  second  son, 
was  to  marry  a  niece  of  the  Emperor's,  who  was  to  have 
Milan  for  her  dowry,  while  the  Duke  of  Savoy  was  to  regain 
his  territories  the  day  the  son  of  Francis  I  entered  Milan 
as  its  sovereign. 

During  this  last  conflict  the  fickle  Henry  VIII  had  declared 
for  Charles  V.  It  was,  therefore,  necessary  to  fight  him,  and 
a  few  attempts  were  made  in  the  north  both  by  land  and  sea. 
The  French  forces  crossed  the  Channel  and  made  a  descent 
upon  the  Isle  of  Wight ;  on  land  a  few  encounters  took  place. 
But  Henry  VIII  finally  made  a  treaty  at  Ardres  by  which,  in 
return  for  800,000  crowns,  he  gave  up  Boulogne  and  its 
territory.     Everybody  was  thoroughly  tired  out. 

Henry  VIII  did  not  long  survive  this  last  episode.  His 
death,  which  was  rather  sudden,  took  place  in  1547.  The 
Death  o£  disappearance  of  a  man  who  was  more  or  less 

Francis  1, 1547.  his  contemporary  gave  Francis  I  a  profound 
shock,  and  he  followed  him  to  the  grave  in  the  same  year, 
at  the  age  of  fifty-three.      He    died    discouraged   and   over- 

F  81 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

whelmed  by  a  reign  of  thirty-two  years,  which  had  counted 
more  hours  of  misery  than  moments  of  happiness,  and  had 
left  bitter  memories  of  a  series  of  disasters  more  permanent  in 
their  effects  than  any  joys  and  satisfactions,  at  least  in  the 
domain  of  politics. 

Sources.  Catalogue  des  actes  de  Frangois  F',  1887  onwards  ;  Martin 
du  Bellay,  Mimoires,  ed.  Michaud  and  Poujoulat  ;  Louise  de  Savoie, 
Journal,  same  edition  ;  Comptes  de  Louise  de  Savoie  et  de  Marguerite 
d'Angouleme,  ed.  A.  Lefranc,  1905  ;  Marguerite  d'Angouleme,  Lettres, 
ed.  Genin,  1841  and  1842  ;  Journal  de  Jean  Barillon,  secretaire  du  chancelier 
Duprat,  ed.  de  Vaissiere,  1897  ;  Journal  d'un  bourgeois  de  Paris  sous  le 
regne  de  Frangois  F'',  ed.  Lalanne,  1854  ;  Chronique  du  roi  Frangois  F'' 
de  ce  nam,  ed.  Guiffrey,  1860  ;  Monluc,  Commentaires  et  lettres,  ed.  de 
Ruble,  1864  ;  Brantome,  CEuvres  completes,  ed.  Lalanne  ;  Captivite  du 
roi  Frangois  F'',  ed.  A.  Champoilion-Figeac  ;  Tommaseo,  Relations  des 
ambassadeurs  vinitiens,  1838  ;  Alberi,  Relazzioni  degli  ambasciatori  veneti 
al  senato,  1839. 

Works.  R.  de  Maulde,  Louise  de  Savoie  et  Frangois  P%  1895  ;  De 
Lescure,  Frangois  I"^,  1878  ;  P.  Paris,  Etudes  sur  Frangois  1"",  1885  ; 
B.  Zeller,  Claude  de  France,  1892  ;  Mignet,  Rivaliti  de  Frangois  I"'  et  de 
Charles  Quint,  1875  ;  Baumgarten,  Geschichte  Karls  V,  1885  ;  A.  Lebey, 
Le  connetable  de  Bourbon,  1904  ;  A.  de  Barral,  Le  camp  du  Drap  d'or,  1879  ; 
Gaehard,  La  captivity  de  Frangois  I""  et  le  traitd  de  Madrid,  1860  ;  Jac- 
queton.  La  politique  exUrieure  de  Louise  de  Savoie,  1892  ;  Decrue,  Anne 
de  Montmorency  grand  maitre  et  connetable  de  France,  1885  ;  A.  Spont, 
Marignan  et  V organisation  militaire  sous  Frangois  I""  {Rev.  des  quest, 
hist.,  1899). 


82 


CHAPTER  III 

THE  COURT  OF  FRANCIS  I 

Francis  I  towards  the  end  of  his  reign,  the  King  and  the  man  ;  his 
mother,  Louise  of  Savoy  ;  his  sister,  Margaret  of  Navarre ;  his 
Queens,  Claude  and  Eleonora ;  Madame  de  Chateaubriant ;  the 
Duchess  d'Etampes  ;  tlie  King's  children  ;  his  counsellors — Mont- 
morency, Admiral  d'Annebaut,  Cardinal  de  Tournon.  The  con- 
stitution and  the  ofTicials  of  the  King's  household.  Court 
gatherings,  balls,  festivals,  and  jousts.  The  King's  journeys.  The 
luxury  of  Francis  I  and  of  his  courtiers  ;  his  financial  extravagance 
and  one  of  its  victims  :  Semblan^ay.  Francis  I's  love  of  art  and 
letters.  The  personal  nature  of  the  literature  of  the  day — Clement 
Marot,  Margaret  of  Navarre,  Rabelais,  Dolet.  Francis  I's 
encouragement  of  learned  men  ;  the  library  of  Fontainebleau,  the 
ColUge  de  France.  The  arts,  the  Renaissance  ;  evolution  of  French 
art ;  its  precursors — Jean  Fouquet,  Bourdichon,  Perreal,  Colombe. 
Gradual  change  in  architecture — Amboise,  Blois  ;  great  buildings 
of  Francis  I,  Chambord,  Madrid,  Fontainebleau ;  Italian  decora- 
tive work,  II  Rosso,  Primaticcio,  Benvenuto  Cellini  ;  the  Fon- 
tainebleau School. 

IN  the  print-room  of  the  Bibhotheque  Nationale  there  is 
a  curious  chalk  drawing  dating  from  the  time  of  Jean 
Clouet  which  gives  a  portrait  of  Francis  I  towards  the 
end  of  his  Hfe.  It  shows  the  King  considerably  aged,  although 
he  was  but  fifty-three.  His  features  are  drawn  with  years 
Francis  I.  to-  ^^^  obvious  fatigue  ;  beneath  his  grey  beard 
wards  the  end  his  mouth  is  compressed  and  bitter,  as  though 
of  his  reign.  he  had  lost  all  illusions  ;  his  gaze  is  sad,  his 
eye  dull,  and  the  whole  picture  conveys  the  impression  of 
a  man  weighed  down  by  the  disappointments  of  life,  disen- 
chanted, and  painfully  resigned.  And,  indeed,  if  we  consider 
the  political  history  of  the  period,  few  reigns  in  the  annals  of 
France — except  that  of  John  the  Good — record  such  lament- 
able  disasters    as    the    defeat    of    Pavia    and  the    captivity 

83 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

in  Madrid,  few  witnessed  such  an  interminable  succession 
of  unfortunate  wars,  constantly  repeated  complications,  and 
mortifying  diplomatic  failures.  Nevertheless,  the  reign  of 
Francis  I  preserves  its  reputation  as  a  brilliant  epoch  in  the 
history  of  France — a  reputation  due  to  the  character  and  tastes 
of  the  King,  and  to  all  he  did  for  the  cause  of  art  and  letters. 

Marino  Cavalli,  the  Venetian  ambassador,  who  arrived  at 
the  French  court  in  1546,  a  few  months  before  the  death  of 
Francis  I,  sent  his  government  an  account  of  the  impression 
produced  upon  him  when  he  saw  the  King.  His  description 
is  extremely  minute.  Francis  I,  who  was  still  tall  and  upright 
and  apparently  strong,  possessed  the  measured  and  noble 
dignity  of  gesture  which  long  years  of  public  life  and  the  weight 
of  maturity  confer  upon  a  man.  He  was  impressive,  extremely 
majestic,  and  regal.  Like  Louis  XIV,  he  would  have  been 
recognizable  anywhere  by  his  stately  appearance.  Robust, 
inured  to  fatigue,  indefatigable  in  riding,  hunting,  and  travelling, 
a  large  eater,  a  heavy  drinker,  and  an  even  better  sleeper,  he 
appeared  to  enjoy  excellent  health.  The  allegations  about 
some  serious  disease  that  consumed  him  seem  never  to  have 
been  substantiated.  He  merely  suffered  from  an  abscess  which 
formed  and  burst  every  year,  a  symptom  which  the  doctors 
regarded  as  favourable,  inasmuch  as  it  "  purged  his  humours." 
And,  indeed,'  in  1547,  the  abscess  did  not  make  its  appearance, 
with  the  result  that  Francis  I  died  rather  suddenly.  He  was, 
moreover,  a  dandy.  Invariably  well-dressed  himself,  he  set 
the  fashion  for  all.  There  was  even  a  certain  studied  refinement 
and  affectation  in  his  attire.  He  would  only  wear  costumes 
trimmed  with  lace  and  embroidery  and  covered  with  precious 
stones.  His  doublets  were  of  gold  tissue,  with  an  opening 
showing  a  shirt  of  fine  linen  edged  with  rare  lace  ;  and  he  had 
rich  clothes  innumerable. 

He  was  above  all  a  charming  talker.  Full  of  life  and  gaiety, 
and  cordial  with  everybody,  his  spirits  and  good  temper  were 
Character  oJ  the  life  and  soul  of  every  party.  Without  having 
Francis  I.  read   much  or  studied   methodically,   he,  never- 

theless, knew  something  of  everything  and  his  varied  and 
inexhaustible  store  of  knowledge  astonished  his  listeners. 
Whether  he  were  discussing  war,  painting,  literature,  languages, 


THE    COURT    OF    FRANCIS    I 

geography,  hunting,  physical  exercise  or  agriculture,  he  had 
accurate  knowledge  and  sensible  ideas  on  every  subject. 
"  Not  only  artists  might  profit  from  his  conversation,"  wrote 
Thomas  Hubert  of  Liege,  who,  in  1535  accompanied  the  Elector 
Palatine  on  a  visit  to  Paris,  "  but  gardeners  and  labourers  as 
well."  His  memory  was  so  good  that  he  could  discuss  the 
genealogies  of  the  gentry,  of  which  he  knew  every  particular, 
just  as  he  remembered  every  noble  in  his  kingdom.  With 
soldiers  he  talked  about  strategy,  the  management  of  armies, 
artillery,  and  commissariat ;  and  astounded  them  by  the  pre- 
cision and  clarity  of  his  ideas.  When  they  expressed  their 
surprise,  the  King  would  laugh  and  say  it  was  perfectly  true 
that  he  knew  the  right  thing  to  do,  but  that  he  had  no  idea  of 
how  to  apply  his  conceptions,  or  rather,  he  could  not  trouble 
to  try,  and  had  unfortunately  never  discovered  the  person  who 
could  carry  them  out  for  him.  Finally,  with  men  of  learning, 
he  loved  to  discuss  philosophy,  books,  and  manuscripts,  and 
by  a  curious  anomaly,  it  was  perhaps  this  kind  of  conversation 
which  best  pleased  this  monarch,  who  was  essentially  an  aris- 
tocrat and  a  typical  representative  of  an  amiable  though 
fundamentally  frivolous  race.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  he  was 
endowed  with  an  inquisitive  mind,  and  possessed  the  gift  of 
picking  up  information  by  making  those  who  knew  a  subject 
talk  about  it.  He  was  extremely  adaptable  and  endowed,  in 
addition,  with  good  sense  and  judgment;  "there  was,"  ac- 
cording to  Cavalli,  "  no  subject,  whether  it  were  a  branch  of 
knowledge  or  one  of  the  arts,  upon  which  his  arguments  were 
not  very  much  to  the  point,  or  on  which  he  could  not  express 
quite  as  confident  an  opinion  as  anyone  who  was  a  specialist 
in  the  matter."  No  other  King  of  France,  not  even  excepting 
Henry  IV,  whom  in  certain  respects  he  so  closely  resembled, 
was  able  to  confer  greater  charm  and  distinction  upon  his 
banquets  and  Court  gatherings,  great  or  small. 

But  taking  him  all  in  all,  Francis  I  was  nothing  more  than 
a  man  of  pleasure.  If,  in  his  youth,  he  had  had  such  a  fondness 
for  rough  and  dangerous  games  that  twenty  times  over  he  had 
run  the  risk  of  being  killed  ;  if  he  had  had  somewhat  savage 
tastes,  as  shown  by  the  fact  that  he  made  a  bull  and  three  lions 
fight  in  the  moat  of  Amboise  ;    if,  as  the  spoilt  son  of  a  rich 

85 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

family  he  had  amused  himself  with  such  follies  as  masquerading 
with  boon-companions,  and  as  the  Journal  d'un  Bourgeois  de 
Paris  relates,  "  going  about  the  town  and  into  sundry  houses 
for  pleasure  and  amusement  "  and  committing  Heaven  alone 
knows  what  excesses  "  which  the  people  bore  with  a  bad 
grace  "  ;  in  his  old  age  he  certainly  preserved  a  marked  love 
of  dissipation.  Hunting,  festivals,  conversations,  constant 
journeys,  dress  and  the  collection  of  beautiful  things  all  en- 
grossed a  mind  which  gradually  became  incapable  of  applying 
itself  for  any  length  of  time  to  serious  matters.  In  spite  of 
his  good  judgment  and  knowledge  this  lack  of  concentration 
made  Francis  I  a  frivolous  man. 

This  frivolity  was  chiefly  displayed  in  matters  connected 
with  his  government.  He  hated  affairs  of  State,  and  his  duties 
as  a  King  were  a  regular  nightmare  to  him  which  he  preferred 
to  discuss  as  little  as  possible.  Easy  to  approach,  good-natured 
and  simple,  he  accepted  any  idea  suggested  by  his  advisers, 
in  order  to  have  done  with  the  matter  as  quickly  as  possible. 
His  sister.  Queen  Margaret,  frequently  complained  of  this  to 
the  ambassador  Giustiniano,  more  especially  when  she  thought 
of  Charles  V,  the  King's  jealous,  reserved,  and  calculating  foe  ! 
But  fortunately,  in  really  momentous  cases,  Francis  I  claimed 
his  right  to  decide  for  himself,  and  in  such  circumstances,  he 
even  assumed  a  peremptory  tone  of  authority.  The  good  side 
to  this  levity  of  character  was  his  utter  inability  to  bear  a 
grudge.  He  found  it  easy  to  forgive  and  forget.  Its  bad  side 
was  responsible  for  a  foolish  policy  which  may  have  given  him 
scope  for  proving  his  gallantry  and  spirit,  two  qualities  he 
certainly  possessed,  but  attested  his  lack  of  subtlety  and  skill, 
which  would  have  been  of  far  greater  use  to  him.  It  is  possible 
that  the  feminine  influences  which  had  been  exercised  upon  him 
from  his  childhood  upwards,  and  in  his  maturity  assumed  such 
undue  importance,  were  to  some  extent  responsible  for  this 
frivolity  of  mind. 

Of  the  women  who  influenced  him  the  first  and  foremost 
was  certainly  his  mother,  Louise  of  Savoy.  The  historians  of 
Louise  oJ  the  seventeenth  century  who  had  to  tell  the  story 

Savoy.  of  Charles  of  Bourbon  after  his  family  had  as- 

cended the  throne  of  France,  were  anxious  to  offer  some  sort 
86 


THE    COURT    OF    FRANCIS    I 

of  excuse  for  his  treachery.  They  accordingly  vilify  Louise 
of  Savoy  and  represent  her  as  a  splenetic,  avaricious  creature, 
moved  by  base  feelings  of  resentment,  and  ready  to  sacrifice 
anybody  and  everybody  to  her  disappointment  at  not  being 
able  to  find  a  second  husband.  The  fact  that  she  was 
grasping  when  her  interests  were  at  stake  is  certainly  beyond 
dispute,  but  that  she  was  base  in  character  is  doubtful.  She 
was  proud  of  her  son,  upon  whom  she  lavished  her  whole  afi'ec- 
tion,  and  she  adored  him  too  much  to  be  able  to  guide  him 
aright.  The  part  she  played  during  his  captivity  at  Madrid 
was  both  dignified,  intelligent,  and  resolute,  and  the  high  esteem 
in  which  Francis  I  held  her  is  proved  by  the  letters  he  wrote 
her.  When  this  slim,  pallid  woman  died  on  September  22,  1513, 
at  the  age  of  fifty-six,  she  was  universally  regretted  and  the 
melancholy  epitaph,  "  Here  lieth  the  body  of  one  whose  soul 
hath  been  raised  to  glory,"  &c.,  which  the  King,  her  son, 
wrote  for  her  tomb,  seemed  justified  in  the  eyes  of  the  whole 
world. 

The  woman  who,  after  his  mother,  influenced  Francis  most, 
was  his  sister  "  Madame  Marguerite  d 'Orleans  "  as  she  was 
Margaret  of  called,  the  charming  Queen  of  Navarre,  who, 
Navarre.  after  the  death  of  her  first  husband,  the  Duke 

of  Alenyon,  following  upon  the  battle  of  Pavia,  contracted 
on  January  31,  1527,  a  loveless  marriage  with  Henri  d'Albret, 
King  of  Navarre.  She  bore  him  a  daughter,  Jeanne  dAlbret, 
who  became  the  mother  of  Henry  IV.  This  clever,  intelligent 
woman,  so  kindly  and  gracious,  so  good,  so  sweet,  so 
charitable,  so  incapable  of  despising  anyone,  whose  mind 
was  open  to  every  idea,  who  loved  to  talk  with  learned  men 
and  who  wrote  tales,  comedies,  pastorals,  songs,  and  verses — 
Marguerites  de  la  Marguerite — also  idolized  the  spoilt  brother — 
who  called  her  his  darling — far  too  much  to  attempt  to  correct 
his  faults.  "Don't  talk  to  me  about  her,"  was  Francis  I's 
reply  to  a  man  who  was  denouncing  his  sister's  Lutheran 
tendencies,  "  she  loves  me  far  too  much  ;  she  will  believe  only 
what  I  believe  !  "  .  .  .  And,  indeed,  she  believed  and  desired 
everything  her  brother  wished.  This  attitude  of  admiring 
approval— or  at  all  events  in  cases  where  she  actually  dis- 
approved, her  inability  to  hazard  a  remonstrance — made  this 

87 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

brilliant,  though  somewhat  indolent  princess  but  a  poor  in- 
strument in  the  hands  of  those  who  wished  her  to  make  the 
King  more  businesslike  and  serious.  It  is  possible  that  in 
her  heart  of  hearts  she  was  herself  ashamed  of  her  weakness, 
and  the  marigold  *  her  favourite  flower,  which  she  chose  as  her 
emblem,  may  have  been  a  symbol  of  the  secret  anxiety  of  her 
mind  ! 

The  influence  of  the  two  Queens,  Francis  I's  first  and  second 
wives,  was  negligible.  The  first,  Claude,  who  died  at  the  age 
Wives  o£  of  twenty-five,  was  too  young  to  have  any  weight 

Francis  I.  with  him  ;   whilst  the  second,  Eleonora,  the  sister 

of  Charles  V,  was  married  from  motives  of  political  expediency. 
She  had  no  children  by  the  King  and  lived  apart,  somewhat 
lonely  and  isolated,  though  she  had  a  numerous  Court  of 
her  own.  She  remained  a  stranger  to  the  end,  without 
influence,  appearing  but  rarely,  and  playing  no  active  part  of 
any  kind. 

The  King's  mistresses,  on  the  other  hand,  filled  a  much  more 
important  position.  Francis  I  enjoys  the  reputation  of  having 
His  mistresses  :  ^^^^  one  of  the  gayest  and  most  fickle  monarchs 
Anne  de  who   ever   reigned   in   France.     But  this  is   an 

Graville.  exaggeration.     In   his   youth  he   may,    perhaps, 

have  shown  himself  both  ardent  and  volatile  in  his  affections, 
but  he  only  had  three  real  passions,  lasting  moreover  throughout 
his  life,  which  is  saying  a  good  deal.  The  first  and  least  im- 
portant was  the  love  inspired  by  Anne  de  Graville,  one  of  Anne 
of  Brittany's  maids-of-honour.  She  was  a  fair,  delicate  girl, 
intelligent  and  graceful,  and  very  attractive  with  her  dark  eyes, 
broad  forehead,  small  mouth  and  pink  complexion.  The 
romance  did  not  last  long,  for  one  fine  day  Anne  eloped  with 
her  cousin  Pierre  de  Balzac  d'Entraigues.  The  couple  were 
subsequently  married  and  given  a  dowry,  and  the  union  proved 
extremely  fruitful. 

The  second  liaison  was  more  serious.  Fran5oise  de  Foix 
was  the  sister  of  two  great  soldiers  of  that  family  of  Foix  which 
Madame  de  was  to  be  found  on  every  battlefield  of  the  period — 
Chateaubriant.  Odet  de  Foix,  Vicomte  de  Lautrec,  who  received 
twenty  wounds   at   Ravenna,   and  Andre  de    Foix,    Seigneur 

*  In  French,  souci,  which  also  means  care. 
88 


THE    COURT    OF    FRANCIS    I 

de  Lesparre,  who  was  blinded  by  a  gun-shot.  She  had 
married  in  1509  a  Breton  nobleman,  Jean  de  Laval,  Sire  de 
Chateaubriant.  She  was  a  tall,  strong  woman,  dark,  massive 
and  of  ample  proportions.  She  wrote  poetry  more  remarkable 
for  quantity  than  for  delicacy,  though  she  had  a  cultivated 
mind.  But  she  was  a  coquette  by  disposition,  with  but  little 
distinction,  lacking  in  reserve,  and  indifferent  to  her  husband. 
The  King's  preference  for  her  dated  from  his  return  from 
Marignano  in  1516.  Their  relations  proved  tempestuous. 
They  exchanged  reams  of  poctry^it  was  the  fashion  of  the 
period  to  write  verse — and  quarrelled  a  good  deal,  for  she  was 
lively,  high-handed,  and  jealous,  whilst  he  was  gay  and  careless. 
She  became  somewhat  of  a  nuisance,  and  Marot  in  composing 
her  epitaph  later  on,  had  good  reason  to  say  :  "  Here  lieth  in 
nothingness  one  who  once  was  all-triumphant."  The  Countess 
of  Chateaubriant  was  supplanted  about  1523  by  the  Duchess 
of  ifitampes,  who  was  in  every  respect  her  opposite. 

Anne  de  Pisseleu,  demoiselle  d'Heilly,  who  afterwards 
became  Duchess  of  fitampes,  was,  in  1523,  a  fair,  pale  young 
The  Duchess  gi^^  o^  seventeen,  charming,  distinguished,  slight 
of  Etampes.  and  graceful.  She  was  maid-of-honour  to  Louise 
of  Savoy,  and  was  as  gentle  and  reserved  as  her  prede- 
cessor had  been  bold  and  outspoken.  Francis  I  remarked  her 
among  his  mother's  elegant  little  band  of  maids-of-honour, 
and  though  he  hid  his  passion,  Louise  of  Savoy  and  Margaret 
were  not  deceived.  At  the  time  of  the  King's  departure  for 
Pavia,  the  Court  knew  nothing,  but  all  was  revealed  on  his 
return.  Her  rival,  Madame  de  Chateaubriant,  was  beside 
herself  with  rage.  She  gave  way  to  ungovernable  fury  and 
kept  calling  Anne  d'Heilly  a  "  fuzzy-haired  chit."  Francis  I 
was  obliged  to  inform  the  Countess  that  all  was  over  between 
them,  and  give  her  her  dismissal.  This  he  did  in  a  letter  in 
verse  in  which  he  compared  her  to  a  "  rabid  beast." 

Liken' d  to  a  rabid  beast  she  was  sent 
With  the  flocks  in  the  meadows  to  pasture  ! 

wrote  Queen  Margaret  ironically.  The  King's  new  passion, 
which  was  destined  to  last  for  four  and  twenty  years,  until 
the  day  of  his  death,  won  for  him  a  faithful  and  intelligent 

89 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

devotion,  a  dainty,  witty,  affectionate,  and  serene  mistress.  On 
the  death  of  Louise  of  Savoy,  Madame  d'fitampes  was  appointed 
governess  to  the  King's  daughters,  Margaret  and  Madeleine,  who 
were  ten  and  seven  years  old  respectively — a  signal  testimony 
of  esteem  and  affection.  In  1534,  when  she  was  twenty-eight, 
she  married  Jean  de  Brosse,  Count  of  Penthievre.  The  King 
conferred  upon  the  newly  wedded  pair  the  county  of  fitampes, 
which  after  two  years,  he  raised  to  the  rank  of  a  duchy. 

It  was  chiefly  in  the  company  of  this  group  of  women  that 
Francis  I  passed  his  life.  He  rarely  left  them,  for  he  delighted 
in  their  society,  and  made  them  accompany  him  on  his  various 
journeys. 

But  his  daughters  must  be  included  in  the  list.  By  his  wife, 
Claude,  he  had  six  children — three  sons,  Francis,  Henry,  and 
Children  of  Charles,  and  three  daughters,  Louise,  Madeleine 
Francis  I.  and    Margaret.     The    eldest    of   the    three    boys 

died  rather  suddenly  in  1536,  as  the  result  of  drinking  a 
glass  of  very  cold  water  immediately  after  taking  violent 
exercise.  The  third,  the  Duke  of  Orleans,  fell  a  victim  in 
1545,  at  the  age  of  twenty-three,  to  some  epidemic  caught 
near  Abbeville  ;  whilst  the  second,  Henry,  was  destined  to 
become  Henry  II.  Of  the  three  daughters,  Louise  died  when 
she  was  just  betrothed  ;  Madeleine  became  Queen  of  Scotland  ; 
and  Margaret  was  still  at  home  with  her  father  at  the  time  of 
his  death.  She  was  then  twenty-two.  Francis  I  had  not  been 
able  to  arrange  a  match  for  her,  though  she  was  intelligent 
and  gifted  like  her  aunt,  and  knew  Latin,  Greek,  and  Italian. 
She  was  a  charming  girl  of  whom  her  father  was  extremely 
fond,  and  she  gave  the  finishing  touch  to  the  pleasant  circle 
which  surrounded  and  entertained  the  King. 

As  a  result  of  the  indifference  of  a  King  who  gave  himself 
up  to  social  life  and  an  existence  of  constant  enjoyment  and 
Advisers  of  pleasure,  the  advisers  of  Francis  I  who  enjoyed 
Francis  I.  their     master's    favour    assumed    an    extremely 

important  position.  At  the  beginning  of  his  reign  the 
King  had  four  or  five  favourites — his  old  friends  Bonnivet, 
Brion,  Montchenu,  and  Montmorency.  After  his  brilliant 
campaign  against  Charles  V,  Montmorency  took  the  lead  and 
was  seconded  in  the  government  by  Admiral  Chabot  de  Brion 
90 


THE    COURT    OF    FRANCIS    I 

and  the  Chancellor  Poyet.  But  these  three  men  did  not 
agree.  Montmorency  and  Poyet  hated  Brion.  They  com- 
passed his  downfall,  drove  him  from  office,  and  made  him  stand 
his  trial.  Montmorency,  however,  in  his  turn,  was  disgraced, 
when  the  policy  of  remaining  on  good  terms  with  the  Emperor, 
which  he  had  advocated,  proved  a  failure.  Poyet  shared  in 
his  fall.  Towards  the  end  of  his  life,  Francis  I  placed  his  whole 
trust  in  Admiral  Claude  dAnnebaut,  a  good  soldier,  and  an 
extremely  honourable  and  worthy  man  who  was  afflicted  with  a 
slight  stammer  ;  and  Cardinal  de  Tournon.  He  saw  everything 
through  their  eyes,  transferred  all  cares  of  State  to  their  shoulders, 
and  approved  of  anjrthing  they  did.  "  The  King,"  wrote  the 
Venetian  ambassador,  "  no  longer  comes  to  any  decision  or 
gives  any  reply  without  hearing  their  advice.  In  everything 
he  listens  to  their  counsels  and  if  ever — a  contingency  which 
but  rarely  occurs — an  answer  is  given  to  some  ambassador,  or 
a  concession  made  that  has  not  been  approved  by  these  two 
advisers,  he  revokes  or  modifies  it."  And  thus,  in  his  dislike 
for  affairs  of  State,  having  found  two  administrators  to  whom 
he  could  commit  the  whole  care  of  government,  Francis  I  was 
free  to  give  himself  up  to  the  life  of  his  choice — a  life  of  Court 
festivities,  pleasure,  and  travel. 

The  Court  of  Francis  I  was  the  earliest  of  those  royal  gather- 
ings of  lords  and  ladies  who  were  always  elegantly  dressed. 
Court  of  always  en  fete,  and  who,  with  their  air  of  per- 

Francis  I.  petual  enjoyment,  their  love  of  display,  brilliance, 

and  splendour  remained  for  so  long  the  highest  achievement 
pf  social  life.  The  actual  constitution  of  the  Court,  with 
its  functions  and  its  offices,  had  existed  for  some  time.  It 
had  been  gradually  formed  during  the  centuries  of  the  Middle 
Ages,  and  was  destined  to  last,  without  many  changes 
or  fresh  additions,  till  the  reign  of  Louis  XIV  and  even  Louis 
XVI.  By  giving  a  special  position  to  women,  by  arousing  in 
the  breasts  of  all  a  love  for  magnificent  personal  adornment, 
and  by  multiplying  Court  gatherings,  Francis  I  gave  life,  as  it 
were,  to  this  setting,  and  endowed  it  with  that  character  of  state- 
liness,  richness,  and  elegance  which  reached  its  apogete  in  the 
time  of  Louis  XIV.  'A  court  without  ladies,"  wrote  Brantome, 
"is  a  garden  without  flowers."     Women  shone  with  particular 

91 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

brilliance  under  Francis  I,  but  in  addition,  a  lavish  supply  of 
attendants,  officials,  and  "servants  "  surrounded  the  King  with 
a  vast  retinue  that  increased  his  dignity  and  added  lustre  to 
his  prestige.     Let  us  make  a  rapid  survey  of  this  gallery. 

Under  the  direction  of  the  master  of  the  King's  household, 
Boissy,  who  was  succeeded  by  Montmorency,  the  various 
Officials  of  attendants  in  this  royal  hierarchy  were  as  follows  : 
his  Royal  first,  the  Chamberlain,    who  had  charge   of  the 

Household.  King's  bedchamber  ;  four  Gentlemen  of  the  Bed- 
chamber, afterwards  called  the  First  Lords-in-waiting,  who 
each  served  for  a  quarter,  that  is  to  say  three  months  at 
a  time,  never  leaving  the  King.  They  had  twelve  Pages 
of  the  Bedchamber  under  them ;  a  bevy  of  Lords  of  the 
Bedchamber,  varying  in  number  from  twenty  to  fifty-four, 
supported  these  four.  Then  came  some  twenty  stewards — 
also  nobles — whose  charge  was  to  see  to  the  material  wants  of 
the  King's  life,  especially  the  food.  They  had  under  them  for 
the  practical  accomplishment  of  their  duties  about  thirty 
pantlcrs,  five-and-twenty  cup-bearers,  and  fifteen  carvers. 
Everything  connected  with  secretarial  work,  correspondence, 
and  State  documents,  belonged  to  a  department  consisting  of 
seven  private  secretaries,  among  them  the  famous  family  of 
Eobertet,  including  Francois,  one  of  the  King's  godsons,  and 
Jean,  all  of  whom  owed  their  posts  to  their  ancestor  Florimond. 
A  certain  Nicolas  de  Neuville  was  also  of  this  number.  He 
was  the  first  of  the  interminable  series  of  royal  and  State  secre- 
taries of  the  same  name,  who  afterwards  assumed  that  of 
Villeroy,  and  for  three  hundred  years,  handed  on  from  father 
to  son,  so  to  speak,  the  right  to  fill  posts  in  the  royal  household. 
The  pages  of  Francis  I,  called  enfants  dlionneur,  were  about 
thirty  in  number.  Upon  them  devolved  innumerable  small 
offices,  such  as  fetching  the  King  anything  he  might  happen 
to  want,  and  above  all  adorning  Court  receptions  by  their  youth- 
ful beauty  and  handsome  silver  livery. 

Then  there  was  the  royal  chapel  with  its  Grand  Chaplain, 
who  was  a  cardinal ;  the  Master  of  the  Oratory,  who  was  a 
The  Royal  bishop  ;    the  King's  confessor,  who  was  a  Dorai- 

Chapel.  nican  ;  fifty  royal  chaplains,  from  whom  Francis  I 

chose  the  bishops  whom  the  Concordat  of  Bologna  gave  him 
92 


THE    COURT    OF    FRANCIS    I 

the  right  to  appoint  to  the  dioceses  of  the  kingdom ;  and  lastly 
seven  ordinary  chaplains  and  seven  lay  chapel  attendants. 

Below  these  were  a  host  of  officials  of  lower  rank  who  fulfilled 
subordinate  duties,  chiefly  "  servants  " — four  Ushers  of  the 
Bedchamber,  who  were  personages  in  their  way  ;  from  twenty 
to  forty  Grooms  of  the  Chamber  ;  this  title  was  not  confined  to 
those  who  fulfilled  the  actual  duties  but  was  also  conferred 
upon  persons  the  King  desired  to  honour,  such  as  Clement 
Marot  and  Fran9ois  Bud6,  and  carried  with  it  an  annual  pension 
of  240  pounds  ;  a  Master  of  the  Robes,  two  cloak-bearers,  seven 
choristers,  seven  doctors,  seven  surgeons,  four  barbers,  one 
librarian,  eight  to  twelve  handicraftsmen,  eight  clerks  of  the 
kitchen  and  eight  ushers  of  the  audience-room. 

The  kitchens  required  a  large  stafT  which  was  divided 
into  two  sections :  those  who  prepared  the  King's  meals — la 
The  kitchens,  cuisine  bouche — and  those  who  were  responsible 
for  the  food  of  the  rest  of  the  court — la  cuisine  commun. 
Each  of  these  kitchens  had  four  chefs  and  six  under-cooks, 
together  with  a  whole  array  of  soup-cooks,  roasters,  sauce- 
makers,  pastry-cooks,  scullions,  kitchen-boys  and  cellar-men, 
without  counting  assistants.  There  was,  besides,  in  addition 
to  all  this,  a  whole  crowd  of  functionaries  of  various  kinds, 
the  inevitable  retinue  of  a  great  Court,  fruiterers,  butchers, 
upholsterers,  farriers,  musicians — players  of  tambourines,  fifes, 
cornets,  and  other  instruments — pursers,  &c.  &c. 

The  stable  formed  a  department  in  itself  ruled  by  the 
Master  of  the  Horse,  Galiot  de  Genouillac,  who  had  under 
The  stables.  his  orders  twenty-five  Equerries,  all  men  of 
good  family,  superintending  a  host  of  coachmen  and  grooms. 
For,  indeed,  Francis  I  required  a  huge  stable  to  meet  all  the 
necessities  of  his  constant  journeyings  with  his  Court  and 
household  ! 

Yet  another  department  was  formed  by  the  hunting  staff, 
which  was  no  less  numerous.  There  was  the  Captain  of  the 
The  hunt.  Toils  with  a  hundred  archers,  whose  duty  it  was 

to  arrange  the  toils  used  for  enclosing  certain  parts  of  the 
forest  ;  the  game  was  beaten  into  this  enclosure  and  then 
shot.  There  were  also  fifty  waggoners,  twelve  huntsmen, 
and  numerous  kennel  attendants  ;    over  a  hundred  dogs  and 

93 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

bloodhounds  ;  as  well  as  the  falconry  with  its  three  hundred 
falcons,  in  the  charge  of  fifty  sub-falconers  and  fifty  nobles 
under  the  command  of  the  Grand  Falconer,  Rene  de  Cosse. 

The  two  Queens,  the  Queen  of  France  and  the  Queen  of 
Navarre,  and  the  princes  had  their  separate  households,  forming 
satellites  to  the  King's  household  ;  if  not  quite  so  magnificent, 
these  had  at  least  as  many  grades.  The  Queens,  moreover, 
had  ladies-in-waiting.  By  an  irony  of  fate  one  of  Queen 
Claude's  ladies  was  none  other  than  Madame  de  Chateaubriant ! 
Of  ladies-in-waiting  proper,  Claude  had  fifteen  and  Margaret 
ten  ;  of  maids-of-honour,  called  Jilles  demoiselles,  there  were 
sixteen  for  the  former  and  eight  for  the  latter.  The  King's 
daughters  had  nineteen  ladies-in-waiting,  three  of  whom  were 
governesses,  not  to  mention  numberless  lady's  maids,  &c. 

To  the  persons  of  the  King's  sons  were  attached  two  tutors, 
five  chancellors,  ten  stewards,  three  gentlemen,  fourteen  pages 
and  a  whole  host  of  servants  similar  to  those  in  the  King's 
household. 

This  rapid  survey  would  not  be  complete  without  mention 
of  the  King's  guards,  consisting  of  four  hundred  archers  of  the 
guard,  of  whom  three  hundred  were  French  and  the  rest  Scotch — 
the  origin  of  the  bodyguard  ;  the  hundred  Swiss,  halberdiers 
clad  in  the  royal  livery  ;  and  the  two  hundred  gentlemen  "  each 
of  whom  carried  on  his  shoulder  a  stafT  decorated  with  a  falcon's 
beak  " — dressed  in  suits  of  various  colours  that  added  splendour 
to  the  Court  ceremonies  by  a  display  of  gorgeous  uniforms. 

These  ceremonies  must  be  pictured  with  all  the  splendour 
conferred  upon  them  by  the  costumes  of  cloth  of  gold  and  silver 
Court  so  dear  to  the  heart  of  Francis  I,  standing  out 

gatherings.  in  relief  against  the  background  of  black,  white, 
and  tan  provided  by  the  royal  liveries.  As  a  matter  of 
fact  Francis  I  had  some  difficulty  in  finding  a  mansion  in 
Paris  suitable  for  such  display.  He  would  not  live  in  the 
Louvre,  a  square,  dark,  inconvenient  old  fortress,  obstructed 
in  the  middle  by  a  huge  keep,  which  shut  out  the  light  from 
the  rooms  and  made  them  sombre  and  gloomy.  The  Louvre 
was  used  solely  as  a  prison  and  treasure-house.  Francis  pre- 
ferred Les  Tournelles,  near  the  Bastille,  which  consisted  of  an 
agglomeration  of  ill-assorted  buildings  of  various  periods 
94 


THE    COURT    OF    FRANCIS    I 

and  styles,  packed  with  small  rooms  and  com'tyards,  possessing 
but  little  accommodation.     Or  failing  this  he  stayed  at  the 
Palace,  where  the  Parliament  used  to  sit.     This  contained  a 
huge  hall,  called  the  procurators'  hall,  divided  into  two  Gothic 
naves,  and  adorned  with  statues  of  painted  and  carved  wood, 
representing  all  the  kings  of  France.    It  was,  indeed,  the  finest 
room  in  Paris,  and  here  Francis  I  generally  held  his  receptions, 
when  the  walls  would  be  hung  with  tapestries.     If  the  occasion 
were  that  of  a  solemn  audience  granted  to  some  ambassador, 
a  platform  adorned  with  hangings  was  raised  near  the  marble 
table  at  the  end  of  the  hall,  and  upon  this  platform  was  placed 
the  King's  seat,  or,  as  it  was  called  at  that  period  the  King's 
"  Chair  of  State."     If  a  banquet  was  to  be  given  or  an  evening 
ball,  the  hall  was  lighted  by  innumerable  candles,  "glowing  wax 
lights  hanging  in  the  form  of  a  cross  from  the  roof."     Against 
the  background  of  sumptuous  tapestries,  beneath  the  flood  of 
light  falling  from  the  vaulted  roof,  the  golden  dresses  of  the 
lords  and  ladies  of  the  court  gleamed  and  scintillated.     Francis  I 
also  held  receptions  in  the  bishop's  palace  behind  Notre  Dame  ; 
and  gave  banquets  in  the  court  of  the  Bastille,  when  all  the 
walls  were  hung  with  tapestry  adorned  with  garlands  of  ivy 
and  illuminated  by  twelve  hundred  torches.     These  were  called 
festivals  "  of  the  burning  torch  "  and  the  banquet  would  be 
followed  by  a  ball.     But  besides  dinners  and  balls,  the  chief 
amusement  of  the  courtiers  consisted  of  the  Jousts  which  were 
held  in  front  of  the  Hotel  des  Tournelles,  when  tapestry-covered 
stands  were  put  up  in  which  elegantly  dressed  ladies  took  their 
seats,  whilst  their  cavaliers  clad  from  head  to  foot  in  the  inlaid 
armour,  of  which  France  still  possesses  some  wonderful  speci- 
mens,  would   hold  contests   of  skill,    vigour,    and   endurance. 
Twice  a  week  Francis  I  loved  to  assemble  his  Court  at  some 
joyous  and  brilliant  gathering,  a  custom,  however,  which  was 
partly  a  matter  of  policy.     For  his  daughter-in-law  Catherine 
de'    Medici,    in    later    years    once    wrote   to   Charles   IX,    "I 
have    heard   your   grandfather,    Francis    I,    say   that    to    live 
peaceably  with  the   French  and   have  them  love  their  King, 
he  must  keep  them  amused  for  two  days  in  the  week,    for 
that  otherwise  they  would   find  themselves   more    dangerous 
employment." 

95 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

As  a  matter  of  fact  the  King  never  stayed  very  long  in 
Paris,  or  indeed,  anywhere  else.  He  was  so  changeable  that 
Journeys  of  he  was  perpetually  on  the  move  and  constantly 
Francis  I.  travelling.     He  would  stay  a  fortnight  at  most 

in  one  place  and  then  suddenly  go  off  somewhere  else.  His 
whole  Court  was  obliged  to  follow  him,  a  tremendous  cortege 
demanding  a  vast  transport  system.  Benvenuto  Cellini  writes 
in  his  Memoirs  that  twelve  thousand  horses  were  required, 
or,  if  the  whole  Court  were  present,  eighteen  thousand,  to 
convey  all  these  people  about  !  According  to  Soranzo,  the  entire 
train  consisted  of  six  thousand  who  rode  on  horseback,  and 
twelve  thousand  pedestrians.  Now  life  was  not  very  agreeable 
during  these  extraordinary  peregrinations.  If  the  caravan 
arrived  in  the  evening  at  some  place  where  there  were  only  a 
few  houses  or  none  at  all,  it  w^as  necessary  to  make  a  camp,  and 
pitch  tents  and  canvas  huts.  According  to  Cellini,  who  suffered 
a  great  deal  under  these  circumstances,  it  was  something  like 
a  "  gypsy  "  camp  !  Every  one  had  to  undergo  hardship  of 
some  description.  The  King  alone  apparently  did  not  suffer 
in  any  way  from  the  consequences  of  this  unstable  manner  of 
life.  He  wanted  for  nothing.  He  had  upholsterers,  called 
reposteros,  who  went  on  ahead  to  arrange  his  lodging  for  the 
night.  They  put  up  his  bed — for  all  the  furniture  of  his  room 
was  carried  about—"  went  about  the  fields  spreading  tapestries, 
cleaning  thick  carpets  for  the  floor  of  his  room  (Oriental  rugs) 
and  clothes  for  him  to  wear."  His  table  lacked  nothing  but 
was  served  with  everything  he  could  possibly  desire.  "  Whether 
he  is  in  a  village,  in  a  forest  or  at  the  assembly,"  writes  Bran- 
tome,  "he  is  treated  as  though  he  were  in  Paris."  Charles  V, 
on  his  journey  across  France,  was  astonished  by  all  these  ar- 
rangements. But  the  Court  grumbled  and  wrangled.  The 
nobility  were  ruined  by  these  expensive  journeys,  upon  which 
everything  was  excessively  costly,  whilst  the  foreign  ambas- 
sadors, who  were  obliged  to  accompany  the  King  on  his  travels, 
never  ceased  to  complain  bitterly.  Whilst  creating  the  first 
Court  of  modern  times,  Francis  I  still  preserved  the  wandering 
spirit  of  his  vagrant  Capet  predecessors. 


96 


THE    COURT    OF   FRANCIS    I 

This  restless  existence  also  proved  extremely  costly 
for  the  King  himself.  Expenditure,  however,  was  a  matter 
Extravagance  to  which  he  never  paid  the  smallest  heed.  Francis 
oJ  Francis  I.  I  was  one  of  the  French  Kings  who  squandered 
most  money,  in  an  exceedingly  magnificent  way,  no  doubt, 
but  with  no  care  or  consideration  of  any  sort. 

He  carried  this  extravagance  into  every  department  of  life. 
He  adored  luxury  for  its  own  sake.  We  have  already  pointed 
out  that  as  an  arbiter  of  elegance,  he  set  the  fashion ;  and 
the  fashion,  in  his  time  was  extremely  expensive.  Everything 
that  Francis  I  wore  was  of  gold.  The  numerous  trinkets  with 
which  he  delighted  to  cover  his  person  were  all  of  gold,  as  well 
as  his  spurs,  his  mirrors,  and  the  buttons  and  hooks  on  his 
clothes.  The  mule  he  rode  had  a  saddle-cloth  adorned  with 
gold,  a  bridle  of  silk  studded  with  gold,  and  gold  buttons  on  its 
trappings.  His  clothes  were  of  cloth  of  gold,  embroidered  and 
edged  with  gold,  like  sacerdotal  vestments.  He  covered  his 
fingers  with  rings  of  diamonds  and  rubies.  His  underclothing 
was  made  of  the  finest  Flanders  linen  and  his  shirts,  embroidered 
with  black  silk,  were  kept  in  scented  Russia  leather  cases.  The 
common  objects  of  everyday  use  about  him,  his  inkstands, 
flagons,  candlesticks,  plate,  his  rebec  (the  musical  instrument 
upon  which  he  played)  and  his  desk  were  all  of  silver.  He  had 
endless  elegant  sable  and  martin  furs,  whilst  the  sheath  of  his 
sword  was  of  white  velvet.  One  year  his  tailors'  bill  amounted 
to  15,600  pounds. 

His  Court  was  obliged  to  follow  his  example.  On  days  of 
grand  ceremonies,  the  two  hundred  lords  of  the  guard  wore 
Extravagance  cloth  of  gold,  whilst  the  King  appeared  all  in 
of  the  Court,  white,  in  cloth  of  silver,  with  the  Chancellor  of 
France  at  his  side  dressed  in  his  robes  of  State  with  a  scarlet 
mantle.  The  Pages  and  Grooms  were  also  in  white,  partly 
velvet,  partly  cloth  of  silver,  whilst  the  courtiers  were  obliged 
to  outshine  each  other  in  magnificence  and  splendour  and  spend 
their  last  farthing  on  their  clothes.  The  public,  though  filled 
with  admiration,  nevertheless  ridiculed  all  this  display,  and  the 
morality  plays  acted  at  the  Place  Maubert  made  mock  of  the 
noble  lords  "who  carried  their  estates  on  their  backs." 

But  this  extravagance  was  most  ruinous  of  all  to  the  King 

G  97 


CENTURY    OF    THE   RENAISSANCE 

himself.  At  any  other  period  in  the  history  of  France  but  this, 
when  the  pubHc  revenue  was  very  large,  the  misery  caused  by 
this  lavish  expenditure  would  have  been  extremely  great.  It 
is  not  easy  to  arrive  at  the  exact  figures,  for,  as  we  shall  see, 
the  accounts  were  not  very  strictly  kept.  The  regular  revenue 
seems  to  have  been  about  three  million  gold  crowns.  On  paper 
the  expenditure  seemed  to  balance  this.  The  estimate  for  the 
King's  expenditure  was  as  follows  :  50,000  crowns  for  dress, 
presents  and  current  expenses  ;  50,000  crowns  for  his  petty 
pleasures  ;  200,000  for  the  upkeep  of  the  guards  ;  70,000  for 
the  Queen  and  her  household ;  300,000  for  the  Dauphin ; 
40,000  for  sport.  But  as  a  matter  of  fact  as  Francis  I  made 
presents  and  gave  commissions  without  either  reflexion  or 
reserve,  the  list  of  expenses  increased  indefinitely.  Costly  wars, 
pensions  paid  to  foreigners,  and  sums  handed  over  to  the  King 
of  England,  helped  to  widen  the  breach,  and  it  is  impossible  to 
find  out  how  much  the  reign  of  Francis  I  cost.  As  early  as 
1518  the  deficit  amounted  to  1,261,203  poimds.  Every  possible 
means  for  getting  money  was  used.  Loans  were  perpetually 
raised  from  all  sources — the  towns,  the  clergy,  and  French  and 
foreign  bankers ;  the  Hotel  de  Ville  fund  was  invented,  the  first 
experiment  in  Government  loans  from  the  public  ;  property 
was  alienated,  all  manner  of  expedients  were  employed,  duties 
were  raised,  and  offices  were  negotiated  for  money.  It.was  a 
miracKthat  the  Government  did  not  become  bankrupt.  But  so 
great  was  the  prosperity  of  the  country  that  the  people  paid 
without  over-much  grumbling,  inspiring  a  certain  Italian  am- 
bassador with  admiration  of  their  submissiveness.  At  his 
death,  moreover,  Francis  I  managed  to  leave  over  two  millions 
in  gold  in  his  coffers  !  But  one  man,  at  least,  was  doomed  to 
fall  a  victim  to  the  disorder  which  reigned  in  the  King's  finances 
— and  this  was  Semblangay.  The  history  of  Semblan9ay  pro- 
vides a  typical  example  of  the  King's  carelessness  and  frivolity 
in  his  extravagances,  and  throws  light  upon  the  organization 
and  method  of  administration  of  the  period. 

It  has  been  asserted  that  Semblan9ay's  fall  was  due  to 
Louise  of  Savoy  who  prevented  him  from  forwarding  to 
Semblan^ay.  Lautrec,  then  fighting  in  Italy,  a  certain  sum 
of  money  which  the  latter  demanded.  She  is  said  to  have  done 
98 


THE    COURT    OF   FRANCIS    I 

this  in  order  to  have  her  revenge  on  Lautrec,  with  whom  she 
was  in  love,  for  his  coldness  towards  her,  and  was  thus  respon- 
sible for  the  defeat  of  that  unfortunate  general  at  the  Bicocca. 
But  this  story  is  a  mere  fabrication.     Jacques  de  Beaune  de 
Semblan9ay  was  an  old  servant  of  the  Crown,  who  had  grown 
white  in  the  administration  of  the  finances.     He  was  the  son 
of  a  plain  merchant  of  Tours,  and  had  been  in  turn  Treasurer 
to  Anne  of  Brittany,  General  (Receiver-General)  of  Languedoc 
in  1495,  and  of  Langue  d'oil  in  1509  ;  in  1518  he  became  a  sort  of 
Superintendent  of  Public  Finance  with  "  charge,  cognizance,  and 
administration  of  the  business  and  handling  of  all  our  finances  " 
to  quote  the  words  of  the  royal  act.     He  managed  the  King's 
money  and  also  the  private  fortune  of  Louise  of  Savoy,  and  was 
an  important  functionary.     Unfortunately  for  a  man  in  his 
position,  though  he  was  clever,  he  had  no  method,  and  his  book- 
keeping left  much  to  be  desired.     When  Francis  I's  extrava- 
gances got  the  royal  exchequer  into  debt  and  it  became  necessary 
to   use    various    expedients   to   replenish   it,    the    complicated 
treasury   transactions   ended   by   compromising   Semblan§ay's 
administration.     But  he  did  not  trouble  about  the  matter,  and, 
moreover,  whether  rightly  or  wrongly,  he  was  under  the  impres- 
sion that  Louise  of  Savoy  meant  her  own  private  fortune  to 
come  to  the  rescue  in  extremity  when  the  royal  exchequer  was 
exhausted.     He  availed  himself  of  this  permission,  which  was, 
as  a  matter  of  fact,  admissible  in  principle.      The  result  was 
dire    confusion.       When   the    money   required    was    about  to 
be  dispatched  to  Lautrec  it  was  found  that  the  treasury  owed 
to  the  account  of  Louise  of  Savoy  a  sum  equivalent  to  that 
destined  to  cross  the  mountains,  and  instead  of  reaching  Italy 
it  remained  in  the  cofTers  of  the  King's  mother.     The  raising  of 
loans,  alienations  of  property,  sales  of  public  ojBfices  and  various 
devices  of  a  similar  nature,  were  the  result.     But  the  chaos  in 
the  public  finances  only  increased.     In  1522  the  deficit  was 
2,500,000  pounds.     The  King,  not  so  much  alarmed  at  his  own 
lavish  expenditure  as  irritated  by  the  perpetual  embarrassment 
of  his  finances,  according  to  Semblan^ay,  suddenly  realized  that 
Semblan^ay  himself  was  extremely  rich — that  every  day  he 
seemed  to  grow  more   and   more   opulent,    and  that   he   was 
constantly  buying  huge  estates,  building  castles,  and  displaying 

99 


CENTURY    OF    THE  RENAISSANCE 

the  possession  of  a  strangely  large  fortune.     Filled  with  mis- 
trust and  suspicion  the  King  demanded  to  see  his  "  Superin- 
tendent's "  accounts.     The  latter  gave  evasive  replies.  Francis  I 
and  Louise  of  Savoy,   however,  insisted,   and  returned  again 
and  again  to  the  charge.     At  last  the  King,  tired  out  by  Sem- 
blan9ay's  delay  and  subterfuges,  appointed  a  Commission  to 
examine  and  audit  the  accounts.     After  many  evasions,  Sem- 
blangay  produced  his  books.     The  Commission  examined  them 
and  pronounced  them  to  be  in  order.     Matters  consequently 
remained  as  they  were.     Two  years  passed,  when  it  chanced 
that  one  of  Semblan9ay's  clerks  was  sent  to  prison  for  some 
offence.     Out  of  revenge  the  man  confessed  that  his  master 
had  made  him  and  others  of  his  fellow-clerks  produce  false 
entries,   antedated  memoranda,   and  sham  receipts — in  short, 
that  Semblan9ay  had  bribed  and  corrupted  his  employees  to 
falsify  the  accounts  which  had  been  submitted   to  the  com- 
mission.    Francis  I  was  furious,  and  decided  to  take  criminal 
proceedings    against    the    Superintendent.     Semblan9ay    was 
cross-examined,  confronted  by  the  evidence  and  tried,  with  the 
result  that  he  was  found  guilty  of  theft,  fraud,  malversation, 
and  abuse  of  confidence,  and  was  sentenced  to  be  hanged  and 
to  have  all  his  property  confiscated.     The  judges,  under  the 
impression  that  the  King  would  not  have  the  sentence  executed, 
were  inexorable.     But  Francis  I  carried  it  out.     The  sight  of 
the  old  man — Semblan9ay  was  seventy-five — whose  life  had 
been  so  enviable,   going  to  the  scaffold  at  Montfaucon,   was 
indeed  lamentable.     He  met  his  death  on  August  11,  1527,  with 
constancy  and  courage.     Maillart,  the  governor  of  the  criminal 
department   of   the   Chatelet,    who   conducted   him,   trembled 
more  than  the  doomed  man.     As  Marot  said  : 

Et  Semblancay  fut  si  ferme  vieillard 

Que  Ton  cuidoit  au  vrai  qu'il  menat  pendre 

A  Montfaucon  le  lieutenant  Maillart.* 

Such  was  the  revenge  or  ransom  demanded  by  the  magnificence 
of  the  Court ! 

*  So  dauntless  was  the  aged  Semblanfay 
That  one  had  deemed  Lieutenant  Maillart  went 
Led  forth  by  him  to  hang  at  Montfaucon. 
100 


^ 


THE    COURT    OF    FRANCIS    I 

Of  all  Francis  I's  financial  extravagance  nothing  connected 
with  his  festivals  and  merrymakings  has  left  a  trace  behind. 
All  that  remains  is  a  half-obliterated  memory  of  them.  But  to 
the  glory  of  this  monarch  a  part,  and  that  not  the  least  part, 
of  the  result  of  his  lavishness  has  survived ;  his  patronage  of 
letters,  to  which  the  College  de  France  even  now  bears  witness, 
and  his  love  of  art,  attested  by  the  castles  built  by  him  and 
still  existing. 

The  interest  which  Francis  I  took  in  literature  and  in  art 
was  certainly  due  to  some  extent,  as  in  the  case  of  the  Italian 
Francis  I's  love  art-patrons  of  his  time,  to  a  desire  to  appear 
of  Art  and  great  and  generous  by  an  intelligent  appreciation 
Letters.  of  artists.     But  unlike  Louis  XIV,  he  was  actuated 

by  something  deeper  than  the  idea  of  making  his  reign  illustrious 
by  the  glory  shed  upon  it  by  men  of  letters,  painters,  architects, 
and  sculptors.  Francis  I  had  a  disinterested  personal  love  of 
beautiful  things.  Brought  up  as  he  had  been,  surrounded  by 
the  delicate  luxury  of  works  of  art,  he  preserved  throughout 
his  life  a  marked  predilection  for  everything  elegant  in  shape 
or  form.  He  had  taste,  and  took  pleasure  in  inspiring  creations 
of  beauty,  in  following  their  progress  to  completion,  and  correct- 
ing their  defects.  It  was  not,  therefore,  merely  as  a  rich  and 
extravagant  man,  who  gave  endless  commissions  and  allowed 
artists  to  produce  works  without  number,  that  he  played  a 
part  in  the  important  artistic  movement  of  his  country.  He 
contributed  to  some  extent  by  his  preferences  to  the  new 
fashions  which  were  gradually  introduced,  and  his  example 
inspired  great  lords  and  financiers  to  imitate  him.  His  in- 
fluence was  a  factor  in  the  development  of  the  Renaissance 
in  France. 

This  influence  was  least  important  in  the  domain  of  letters. 
The  literature  of  the  first  half  of  the  sixteenth  century  was  too 
personal  in  character  to  submit  to  any  action  from  without. 
It  is  unnecessary  to  discuss  Francis  I's  literary  talents.  He 
composed  verses  and  exchanged  rhymed  letters  with  his  mother, 
his  sister,  Madame  de  Chateaubriant,  and  Anne  d'Heilly ;  and 
rondeaux,  madrigals,  songs,  and  epigrams  from  his  pen  are  still 
in  existence.  They  are,  however,  all  specimens  of  mediocre 
versification  rather  than  poetry. 

101 


UNIVERSITY  OP  CALIFORNIA 
SANTA  BAFlBARA  COLLEr,E  LTRRAR1 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

But  he  was  quite  capable  of  appreciating  good  verse.  It 
was  he  who  recognized,  protected,  and  encouraged  the  most 
Marot.  famous  poet  of  his  reign,  Clement  Marot,  whose 

independent  humour,  essentially  French  in  spirit,  and  easy 
graceful  verse,  with  its  pretty  pictures  of  rural  life,  are  very 
typical  of  the  age.  Queen  Margaret,  who  took  a  great  delight  in 
him,  gave  him  a  pension  of  155  pounds  and  Francis  I  conferred 
upon  him  the  title  of  Groom  of  the  Chamber,  which  carried  with 
it  a  pension  of  240  pounds.  He  displayed  a  great  interest  in 
his  compositions  and  urged  him  to  make  a  verse  translation  of 
the  Psalms,  a  task  which  he  actually  carried  out.  But  Clement 
Marot  had  Lutheran  proclivities,  and  his  translation  of  the 
Psalms,  which  had  considerable  success  in  Protestant  circles 
and  was  sung  by  all  the  Huguenots  of  the  sixteenth  century, 
provided  a  pretext  for  virulent  attacks  upon  him,  which  finally 
drove  him  into  exile.  He  left  France  and  died  at  Turin  in 
1544.  Francis  I,  however,  remained  faithful  to  him,  and  the 
lists  of  the  roj^al  household  contained  the  entry  of  Marot's  name 
as  Groom  of  the  Chamber  to  the  King,  together  with  the 
pension  attached  to  that  office,  two  years  after  the  death  of 
the  poet. 

Bonaventure  des  Periers  was  also  an  independent  and 
original  character,  who  was  likewise  a  pensioner  of  Margaret  of 
Navarre.  He  was  admitted  to  the  Court,  and  like  his  royal 
patroness  was  a  poet  and  a  prose-writer  who,  in  his  Cymbalum 
mundi  revealed  a  mocking  spirit  of  scepticism  akin  to  that  of 
Voltaire.  He  turned  Protestant,  or  perhaps  merely  atheist, 
was  persecuted  by  everybody — even  Calvin — and  ended,  it  is 
said,  by  committing  suicide  in  1544. 

But,  save  in  the  case  of  Clement  Marot,  it  was  not  so  much 
poetry  as  the  tale  and  the  novel  that  flourished  under  Francis  I. 
Margaret  of  This  style  of  MTiting,  copied  from  Italy,  had  a 
Navarre  and  great  success  among  the  King's  courtiers,  as  well 
Rabelais.  as    with    the    monarch    himself.       Margaret    of 

Navarre  cultivated  it  sedulously,  and  in  her  Heptameron  left  to 
posterity  her  best  title  to  literary  fame,  certainly  a  stronger 
claim  than  can  be  made  for  her  somewhat  colourless  poetry. 
Margaret's  tales  are  a  little  wanting  in  relief,  perhaps,  but  they 
show  a  pleasant  ingenuity  and  differ  from  similar  productions 
102 


THE    COURT    OF    FRANCIS    I 

of  the  time  by  the  choice  of  stories  of  a  more  actual  and 
"  modern  "  kind.  Francis  I,  who  is  the  subject  of  at  least  one 
of  these  tales,  took  a  delight  in  them  ;  he  certainly  also  read 
the  first  book,  which  appeared  in  1535,  and  the  third,  which 
came  out  in  1545,  of  Pantagruel,  a  work  truly  representative  of 
the  many-sided  sixteenth  century,  so  jealously  free  in  spirit, 
and  bold  and  prompt  in  accepting  new  ideas.  Rabelais,  with 
his  wide  learning  and  his  independence  of  character,  his 
audacities  of  thought,  his  open  and  cynical  mind,  and  his 
critical  and  well-informed  judgment,  charmed  an  epoch  which 
saw  itself  reflected  in  him.  The  force  of  a  unique  creative 
imagination  and  an  almost  unequalled  richness  of  vocabulary, 
combining  to  pour  out  a  mingled  torrent  of  inimitable  beauty 
and  unblushing  grossness,  the  whole  possessing  an  undisputed 
philosophical  and  social  value,  make  his  work  an  incomparable 
monument  of  his  times.  But  how  individual  and  isolated  he 
remains,  notwithstanding ;  understood  probably  by  himself 
alone,  and  doubtless  careful  not  to  be  too  lucid,  on  account  of 
the  boldness  of  his  ideas,  and  the  vivacity  of  his  criticism. 
Living  a  simpler  life  than  has  been  supposed,  and  probably  a 
worthy  fellow  without  pretensions  of  any  sort,  Rabelais  was  not 
cast  in  the  heroic  mould  of  the  man  who  risks  his  life  to  maintain 
his  principles. 

But  one  of  his  contemporaries  dared  to  do  so,  and  duly 
paid  the  penalty  for  his  courage.  This  was  !l£tienne  Dolet,  a 
Dolet.  learned  printer  of  Lyons,  who  was  a  sceptic  and 

an  atheist.  He  printed  and  hawked  heretical  books  which  led 
to  his  being  arrested  and  tried.  According  to  Calvin  "  he 
openly  showed  his  contempt  for  the  Gospel "  and  declared 
"  that  the  life  of  the  soul  was  in  no  respect  different  from  that 
of  dogs  and  swine."  The  Parliament  sent  him  to  the  stake  ; 
the  sentence  seems  very  severe  nowadays.  In  the  absence  of  a 
penal  code  at  this  period.  Parliament  decided  the  punishments 
to  be  inflicted  for  "  crimes  "  brought  within  its  jurisdiction, 
and  these  punishments  were,  as  a  rule,  extremely  harsh.  In 
the  case  of  Dolet,  independence  of  thought  was  carried  to  its 
utmost  limits,  and  natures  such  as  his  could  be  affected  by  the 
King  of  France  only  in  so  far  as  the  monarch  might  interfere 
with  the  execution  of  parliamentary  justice,  or  let  it  take  its 

103 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

course.  Thus  by  reason  of  its  character  the  literature  of  his 
time  escaped  the  influence  of  Francis  I. 

With  a  httle  more  learning  the  King  would  have  obtained 
a  firmer  hold  over  letters  ;  not  that  he  discovered  or  directed 
Francis  I's  ^^^  ^^  talent,  but  his  patronage  contributed 
encouragement  notably  to  the  support  of  philological  studies, 
of  learned  Thanks  to  the  invention  of  printing,  fresh  editions 

^®°-  of  Greek  and  Latin  authors  came  into  existence 

every  day,  and  interest  in  the  works  of  the  ancients,  which  had 
hitherto  been  practically  inaccessible,  increased  considerably. 
Publications  such  as  Bude's  Commentaires  sur  la  Langue 
Grecque  and  Robert  Estienne's  Thesaurus  Linguce  Latince 
facilitated  acquaintance  with  the  wisdom  of  antiquity,  and  a 
large  number  of  people  developed  a  taste  for  the  careful  study 
of  Greek  and  Latin  forms.  Interested  in  everything  connected 
with  the  exercise  of  the  intellect,  Francis  I  was  greatly  attracted 
by  this  movement.  He  was  eager  to  follow  it,  to  know  the  men 
who  were  its  most  skilled  workers,  and  keep  himself  informed 
through  them  of  all  that  was  being  done  or  remained  to  be 
done.  Thus  the  most  famous  scholars  of  his  reign  were 
gradually  introduced  into  his  circle  ;  he  invited  them  to  his 
board,  conversed  with  them  on  terms  of  familiarity,  and  listened 
to  their  counsels. 

The  most  illustrious  of  these  was  Guillaume  Bude,  the 
omniscient  Bude,  who  was  jurist,  theologian,  mathematician, 
Bud§  and  philologist,    historian,    critic,    archaeologist,    and 

other  Savants,  above  all  Hellenist,  "  one  of  the  wise  men  of 
Christendom,"  as  he  was  called,  "  the  French  prodigy,"  accord- 
ing to  Erasmus,  a  typical  sixteenth-century  savant  and  one  of 
the  first  scholars  to  apply  himself  to  the  study  of  antiquity. 
Louis  XII  had  already  noticed  him,  and  with  complete  con- 
fidence in  his  powers,  had  sent  him  as  his  ambassador  to  the 
court  of  Julius  II.  Francis  I  conferred  upon  him  the  title  of 
Groom  of  the  Chamber,  together  with  the  pension  attached  to 
this  office,  and  paid  great  attention  to  his  opinion.  The  advice 
of  the  learned  Hellenist  was,  above  all,  invoked  for  two  or  three 
schemes  which  were  set  on  foot  and  carried  out  by  the  King. 

Next  in  importance  to  Bude  came  Lefevre  of  ifitaples,  Faber 
Stapulensis,  as  he  signed  himself  in  his  books,  thus  earning  for 
104 


THE    COURT    OF   FRANCIS    I 

himself  the  surname  of  StapouL  He  was  a  philosopher,  mathe- 
matician, moralist,  and  exegetist,  though  but  little  of  a  philo- 
logist. The  King,  who  had  a  very  high  opinion  of  him,  made 
him  tutor  to  his  third  son.  There  were  also  the  Hellenist, 
Jacques  Toussaint,  Tussanus,  Robert  Estiennes'  master ; 
Robert  Estienne  himseli ;  Vatable,  whose  real  name  was 
Watebled,  a  Hebrew  scholar  and  also  something  of  a  Hellenist, 
destined  to  become  a  professor  in  the  College  de  France  ;  and 
above  all,  Guillaume  Postel,  the  Orientalist,  one  of  the  first  to 
unravel  the  tangled  skein  of  Oriental  languages.  He  was  a 
strange  creature,  full  of  visions,  who  only  escaped  the  Inquisi- 
tion later  on  by  passing  as  slightly  mad.  Francis  I  took  a 
delight  in  discussing  scholarship  and  philological  science  with 
all  these  men. 

During  the  course  of  these  conversations  certain  projects 
were  discussed,  the  realization  of  which  will  always  remain  to 
The  library  of  the  credit  of  Francis  I.  In  the  first  place,  his 
Fontainebleau.  attention  was  drawn  to  the  fact  that  to  help  these 
learned  men  in  their  studies,  it  would  be  extremely  useful  to 
find  and  buy  precious  manuscripts  from  all  quarters,  chiefly 
from  abroad,  and  to  house  them  all  in  one  building  where  they 
could  be  consulted  by  scholars.  This  twofold  idea  was  the 
origin  of  the  Royal  Library,  which  was  destined  throughout  the 
centuries  to  carry  out  this  policy  of  buying  and  preserving  texts 
most  useful  to  the  pursuit  of  learning.  Francis  threw  himself 
heart  and  soul  into  the  scheme.  Venice  was  at  this  time  the 
great  market  for  manuscripts  from  Greece  and  Italy.  Guillaume 
Pellicier,  the  French  ambassador  to  Venice,  was  accordingly 
charged  with  the  task  of  collecting  as  many  of  these  manuscripts 
as  possible,  and  money  was  sent  him  for  this  purpose.  In  1541 
Pellicier  dispatched  four  boxes  of  Greek  manuscripts  to  Fon- 
tainebleau. Guillaume  Postel  was  sent  on  a  mission  to  the 
East  to  find  manuscripts.  He  went  to  Constantinople,  Syria, 
and  Egypt,  and  reaped  a  rich  harvest.  Others  played  their 
part  in  making  similar  acquisitions.  And  thus  the  foundations 
of  a  library  were  laid  which,  in  spite  of  various  vicissitudes, 
continued  to  grow  and  finally  developed  into  the  Biblioth^que 
Nationale  of  the  present  day.  Francis  I  placed  his  manuscripts, 
to  which  he  added  a  collection  of  books,  at  Fontainebleau,  in  a 

105 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

room  above  the  little  gallery  painted  by  II  Rosso,  on  the  second 
floor,  just  under  the  roof.  Guillaume  Bude  was  at  one  time 
the  librarian  of  this  collection,  but  was  succeeded  in  the  post  by 
Pierre  Gille. 

Francis  I  also  founded  the  College  de  France.  As  a  matter 
of  fact,  as  was  the  case  to  some  extent  even  with  the  Biblio- 
The  College  theque  Nationale,  he  is  to  be  credited  with  the 
de  France.  realization  of  an  idea,  rather  than  with  any  great 
development  of  it.  It  was  at  the  instigation  of  Bude  that  the 
King  undertook  this  work,  which  aimed  at  forming  outside  the 
ancient  and  rigid  framework  of  the  Universities,  a  series  of  free 
courses  on  a  wider  scope  of  subjects  and  sciences  than  those 
taught  by  the  Universities.  It  was  started  on  an  extremely 
modest  scale.  The  King  allocated  400  pounds  for  the  salaries 
of  the  professors  who  were  appointed  ;  Vatable  for  Hebrew, 
Postel  for  Oriental  languages,  Oronce  Fine  for  mathematics, 
and  Galland  for  Latin.  Bude  did  no  teaching,  but  supervised 
the  organization.  In  the  absence  of  a  special  building  the 
courses  were  held  in  the  class-rooms  of  the  College  de  Cambray. 
Each  professor  took  the  text  of  some  work,  read  it  aloud,  and 
commented  upon  it.  Such  was  the  system  of  instruction,  and 
hence  we  have  the  title  lecteur  (reader)  which  is  given  to 
professors  to  this  day.  Francis  I  would  fain  have  engaged 
Erasmus  and  actually  wrote  to  him,  but  the  Dutch  savant  did 
not  care  to  come.  The  institution  was  founded  in  1530,  and  in 
that  year  the  lecteurs  royaux  began  their  courses,  under 
very  humble  and  precarious  auspices !  In  the  eyes  of  its 
contemporaries  the  College  never  possessed  that  distinction  it 
afterwards  attained,  but  was  regarded  with  indifference  or 
jealousy.  Francis  I,  with  his  usual  instability  and  frivolity, 
failed  to  maintain  his  interest  in  the  institution,  and  more 
than  once  the  salaries  of  the  neglected  professors  fell  into 
arrears.  But  the  establishment  was  made,  and  was  destined 
to  survive  and  develop  ;  and  the  King's  reputation  had  the 
good  fortune  to  benefit  by  its  happy  survival  and  ultimate 
celebrity. 

Perhaps  Francis  I  has  not  been  given  due  credit  for  the 
incomparable  brilliance  of  the  arts  in  his  reign  ! 

There  has  been  much  discussion  as  to  whether  the  Renais- 
106 


THE    COURT    OF   FRANCIS    I 

sance,  i.e.  that  transformation,  chiefly  in  the  realm  of  the  arts, 
by  which  the  reahstic,  varied,  picturesque,  fantastic  Gothic 
style,  with  its  undiscipUned  freedom  and  disorderly  appearance, 
gave  way  to  an  art  that  was  idealized,  regulated,  subjected  to 
geometrical  canons  and  a  well-balanced  discipline,  was  the 
immediate  product  of  Italian  influence  alone,  or  the  result  of  a 
spontaneous  modification  of  the  French  genius.  The  advocates 
of  the  first  theory  attribute  the  great  castles  of  the  Loire  to 
Italy,  whilst  their  opponents  refuse  to  acl^nowledge  Italian 
influence  anywhere.  It  is  probable  that  the  truth  lies  some- 
where between  these  two  extremes.  Is  the  very  word  Renais- 
sance, which  implies  a  resurrection — ^that  is  to  say,  the  resur- 
rection of  the  artistic  principles  of  the  ancient  world  to  new 
life  and  honour — itself  correct  ?  This  indeed  is  open  to  doubt, 
but  it  is  impossible  to  modify  a  term  which  expresses  something 
that  everybody  understands. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  there  was  first  an  evolution  of 
French  taste ;  love  of  the  vital  ruggedness  of  fifteenth- 
Evolution  o£  century  art  with  its  restless  architecture,  gave 
\|  French  art.  place  to  an  admiration  for  order,  harmony,  and 
-^nb^race.  This  evolution  was  no  sudden  transformation,  and 
was  not  entirely  due  to  the  sudden  discovery  of  Italy  by  the 
conquering  armies  of  the  French  Kings.  France  had  for  a  long 
time  enjoyed  an  intimate  connexion  with  Italy.  Traders  and 
bankers,  more  especially  in  Lyons,  which  was  a  great  centre 
for  international  business  transactions,  were  well  acquainted 
with  the  various  Italian  towns.  Prelates  and  other  dignitaries 
of  the  Church  were  constantly  crossing  the  Alps  and  visiting 
Rome  in  connexion  with  their  work,  and  they  had  not  failed  to 
observe  and  appreciate  specimens  of  Italian  art,  which  had 
reached  a  high  degree  of  perfection  at  that  date.  The  proof  of 
this  is  to  be  found  in  the  fact  that  a  man  like  Thomas  James, 
Bishop  of  Dol  in  Brittany,  had  a  seal  made  for  himself  in 
Italy  in  1478  which  might  pass  for  work  of  the  best  Renais- 
sance period,  whilst  in  1507  the  Abbot  of  Fecamp  gave  a 
commission  in  Genoa  for  a  Shrine  of  the  Holy  Blood  which  is 
still  in  the  church  of  the  old  abbey  and  is  one  of  the  most 
exquisite  art  productions  of  the  sixteenth  century.  The  great 
art    patrons    of   the    fifteenth   century  had  employed    Italian 

107 


CENTURY    OF     THE    RENAISSANCE 

workmen.  The  good  King  Ren6,  who  had  stayed  a  long  while 
in  Italy,  had  taken  Piero  of  Milan  and  Francesco  Laurana  into 
his  service  and  was  responsible  for  the  tomb  of  Charles  du 
Maine  in  the  cathedral  of  Mans,  a  piece  of  Italian  work  carried 
out  entirely  in  the  new  style.  Others  had  studied  the  ancient 
monuments  and  there  were  signs  of  a  reaction  in  favour  of  their 
severity  of  style.  Jean,  Duke  of  Berry,  had  had  antique 
cameos  and  medals  in  his  collection.  Thus,  at  the  beginning 
of  the  sixteenth  century  the  French  were  not  absolutely 
unacquainted  with  Italy  or  entirely  ignorant  even  of  classical 
art.  But  artists  and  works  of  art  gradually  made  their 
appearance,  bearing  witness  to  a  modification  in  the  idea  of 
the  beautiful  in  France,  and  almost  insensibly  preparing  the 
public  mind  for  the  ideal  which  was  to  prevail  in  the  sixteenth 
century. 

There  were  painters,  for  instance,  like  Jean  Fouquet,  who 
was  born  in  1415,  died  in  1480,  and  worked  for  Charles  VII, 
Jean  Fouquet,  Louis  XI,  and  ifitienne  Chevalier.  His  incom- 
Bourdichon,  parably  conscientious  and  talented  work  was  in 
Perr6al.  many  respects  still  realistic,  though  his  realism,  it 

is  true,  was  less  harsh  than  that  of  the  Flemish  painters  of  the 
same  period.  But  how  eloquently  his  backgrounds  of  classical 
architecture,  the  loftiness  of  his  conceptions,  and  the  arrange- 
ment of  his  subjects,  emphasize  the  change  which  the  data 
of  his  predecessors  had  undergone  !  The  transition  is  re- 
vealed, and  shows  itself  in  a  more  pronounced  fashion  in  the 
miniatures  of  Jean  Bourdichon  of  Tours  (1457-1521)  who 
worked  for  four  kings  and  painted  the  picture  representing  the 
great  moments  in  the  life  of  Anne  of  Brittany — a  masterpiece 
in  which  the  purity  of  the  figures  of  the  Queen  and  the 
saints  surrounding  her,  the  lightness  and  noble  delicacy  of  the 
detail,  and  of  the  values,  are  much  more  closely  allied  to 
the  charming  productions  of  the  sixteenth  century  than  to 
the  Gothic  ideal,  which  was  beautiful  in  its  way,  but  extremely 
rigid  and  inflexible.  We  might  quote  yet  another  artist  of  the 
late  fifteenth  century,  who,  like  Bourdichon,  was  attached  to 
the  court  of  Charles  VII,  Jean  Perreal,  surnamed  Jean  de 
Paris,  were  it  not  that  there  is  still  some  doubt  as  to  the  works 
attributed  to  his  brush. 
108 


THE    COURT    OF    FRANCIS    I 

Sculpture  was  represented  by  Michel  Colombe  (1430-1512), 
one  of  the  best  of  French  artists.  He  was  a  native  of  Brittany, 
Michel  who  took  up  his  abode  on  the  banks  of  the  Loire 

Colombe.  and   seems   never   to   have    visited   Italy.     Like 

Bourdichon,  he  represents  a  very  high  degree  of  the  evolution 
of  French  taste  in  the  direction  of  more  refined  forms.  His 
Saint  George  and  the  Dragon,  made  for  the  Chateau  de  Gaillon, 
is  a  product  of  French  genius  in  every  respect,  both  in  form 
and  feeling,  and  owes  nothing  whatever  to  Italian  influence. 
And  his  tomb  of  Francis  II  of  Brittany,  in  the  cathedral  at 
Nantes,  which  was  ordered  by  Queen  Anne  in  1501,  is  one  of 
the  most  striking  examples  of  the  modifications  which  were 
taking  place.  The  figures  of  the  Virtues,  standing  at  the  four 
corners  of  the  tomb,  admirable  in  their  harmony,  suppleness, 
intelligence,  sobriety,  and  simplicity,  prove  the  extent  to  which 
pre-Renaissance  French  artists  had  learnt  to  apply  the  best 
qualities  of  taste  and  elegance,  before  the  repeated  French 
expeditions  to  the  valley  of  the  Po  had  enabled  them  to  take 
lessons  from  the  Italians.  In  addition  to  Colombe,  we  must 
mention  the  anonymous  artist  responsible  for  the  beautiful 
sculptures  of  Solesmes,  the  tombs  of  Charles  VIII's  children  at 
Tours,  and  various  other  isolated  works  of  art  which  critics 
attribute  to  Colombe  or  his  school.  French  sculpture  of  the 
sixteenth  century  was  no  spontaneous  growth ;  it  had  its  own 
antecedents. 

The  same  may  be  said  of  architecture.  The  buildings  of 
the  late  fifteenth  and  the  early  sixteenth  century,  such  as 
Architecture.  Amboise,  the  Blois  of  Louis  XII  and  the  Chateau 
de  Gaillon  are  French  Gothic.  The  accounts  of  the  Chateau  de 
Gaillon  published  by  M.  Deville  contain  the  names  of  over  one 
hundred  artists,  of  whom  only  three  are  Italians  ;  two  of  these 
had  been  established  in  France  for  a  long  time  and,  moreover, 
played  no  important  part  in  the  building  or  decoration  of  the 
castle.  But  the  elements  which  were  to  be  characteristic  of 
the  new  art  of  the  Renaissance :  semicircular  arches,  engaged 
columns  with  Corinthian  capitals,  niches  between  windows,  and 
carved  friezes,  gradually  made  their  appearance.  These  details 
were  not  unknown  to  the  painters  of  the  fifteenth  century,  who 
frequently   made   use   of  them  in  the   backgrounds   of  their 

109 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

pictures.  Obviously,  they  did  not  invent  them,  and  Italy  alone 
could  have  provided  them  with  their  models.  It  was  probably 
due  to  them  that  as  early  as  the  building  of  Amboise,  the  masons 
introduced  those  semicircular  arches  and  niches  for  statues, 
which  are  to  be  found  in  the  plans  of  Amboise  reproduced  by 
Du  Cerceau  in  his  work  Les  Plus  excellens  hastimens  de  France. 
The  first  building  to  which  these  principles  were  largely  applied 
is  the  portion  of  Blois  built  during  the  reign  of  Francis  I. 

Many  attempts  have  been  made  to  discover  the  names  of 
the  architects  responsible  for  the  chateaux  of  Francis  I's  time, 
and  the  fact  that  none  have  been  found,  and  that  only  the 
names  of  master-masons  have  been  brought  to  light,  has 
caused  a  good  deal  of  surprise.  But,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  the 
architect  in  the  modern  sense  had  not  yet  come  into  existence 
at  that  period.  As  in  country  districts  at  the  present  day, 
there  were  only  builders  and  workmen,  many  of  them  men  of 
taste  and  skill,  with  whom  contracts  for  buildings  were  made. 
And  thus  the  edifices  of  that  time  were  the  product  of  a  colla- 
boration of  the  master's  idiosyncrasies  with  the  ideas  of  the 
craftsmen.  Queen  Claude,  who  inherited  Blois  from  her 
father  Louis  XII,  was  anxious  to  have  something  better  to 
look  out  upon  than  the  cold,  sombre  walls  of  the  feudal  castle 
which  enclosed  the  court  to  the  right  of  the  elegant  structure 
for  which  Louis  XII  had  been  responsible.  As  soon  as  Francis  I 
ascended  the  throne  in  1515,  she  had  the  work  set  on  foot.  An 
architect,  in  the  modern  sense  of  the  word,  would  have  pulled 
down  the  existing  edifice  and  raised  a  grand  building  on  a 
definite  plan.  Jacques  Sourdeau,  however,  the  master-mason 
with  whom  Claude  had  to  deal,  preserved  the  old  castle  from 
motives  of  economy,  and  rebuilt  the  fagade.  Hence  the 
irregularity  of  this  fa9ade,  which,  in  our  opinion,  gives  it 
additional  character.  The  windows  are  placed  at  unequal 
intervals,  and  the  chimney-stacks  defy  the  laws  of  symmetry. 
It  was  found  necessary  to  construct  a  staircase,  and,  as  it  was 
impossible  to  introduce  it  in  the  interior,  Sourdeau  put  it 
outside  on  the  fa§ade,  and  not  even  in  the  middle  of  this.  But 
his  design  for  the  framework  is  so  rich  and  elegant  that  it 
compels  our  admiration.  The  windows  were  still  the  casement 
windows  of  Louis  XII's  time,  but  they  were  enframed  by  little 
110 


THE   COURT    OF   FRANCIS    I 

pilasters  with  capitals.  The  whole  still  preserved  the  irregular 
and  asymmetric  composition  of  the  Gothic  style,  whilst  the  new 
taste  was  revealed  in  a  greater  geometric  simplicity  and  the 
kind  of  elegance  produced  by  purity  of  line.  The  outer  fagade 
on  the  north  side  was  an  even  better  example  of  the  empirical 
nature  of  an  art  resulting,  not  from  the  theoretical  conceptions 
of  an  architect,  working  on  an  a  priori  plan,  but  from  the  clever 
manipulations  of  masons  who  built  from  day  to  day  to  meet 
unexpected  demands.  In  front  of  the  mediaeval  facade,  which 
was  left  intact,  a  terrace  was  built,  and  upon  this  loggias  were 
raised,  forming  another  terrace  for  the  next  storey,  and  so  on 
up  to  the  roof.  And  as  the  roof  could  not  be  brought  into  the 
arrangement,  a  little  gallery  of  pilasters  different  from  the  rest 
of  the  fa9ade  had  to  be  added  to  mask  the  defect. 

Queen  Claude's  buildings  at  Blois  were  apparently  com- 
pleted in  1519.  Francis  I  followed  the  work  with  great  interest 
and  in  his  turn  made  up  his  mind  to  build. 

Francis  I  was  one  of  the  greatest,  if  not  the  greatest  builder 
of  any  of  the  Kings  of  France,  and  was  responsible  for  eight  or 
Francis  I's  nine  chateaux  and  palaces.  By  providing  artists 
Chateaux.  with  generous  supplies  for  their  work,  by  setting 

an  example  which  was  followed  by  others,  by  collaborating  as  a 
man  of  taste  with  the  builders  and  by  his  ideas  and  his  prefer- 
ences, he  contributed  towards  the  invention  and  development 
of  new  forms.  And  thus  he  set  the  fashion  and  inspired  the 
taste  of  his  period. 

The  first  work,  upon  which  he  embarked  in  1519,  was  the 
building  of  Chambord.  Few  chateaux  afford  a  better  example 
of  the  manner  in  which  edifices  were  raised  at  this  period. 
They  were  not  built  all  in  one  style,  previously  conceived  as  a 
whole,  but  piece  by  piece,  in  accordance  with  a  succession  of 
ideas.  Francis  I's  reason  for  choosing  the  site  is  not  knovvii. 
The  hypothesis  of  some  amorous  intrigue  is  a  myth.  He  may 
have  wanted  a  hunting-box,  and  it  is  possible  that  a  feudal  castle 
had  already  stood  on  the  spot.  The  central  portion  of  Chambord 
is,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  nothing  but  a  fifteenth-century  feudal 
castle  in  plan,  very  similar  to  Vincenncs  :  a  square  structure 
with  four  large  towers  at  the  corners,  and  the  walls  only  pierced 
by  high  windows.     The  facade  was  afterwards  continued  to  the 

111 


CENTURY    OF   THE    RENAISSANCE 

right  and  the  left  as  far  as  some  towers,  in  the  form  of  dovecots, 
which  stood  a  short  distance  away  ;  and  to  complete  the  general 
silhouette,  a  further  addition  was  made  still  later,  in  1544,  of  a 
central  lantern-tower,  built  under  a  special  contract  with  the 
mason  Jacques  Coqueau,  who  furnished  the  design.  The  result 
of  this  method  of  construction  is  a  fa9ade  which  is  most  magni- 
ficent and  regal  in  appearance.  But  if  the  edifice  be  examined 
minutely  it  will  be  discovered  that  nothing  is  regular.  This  is 
not  said  in  any  spirit  of  criticism,  for  the  fine  effect  of  the  whole 
may  be  due  to  this  very  irregularity  in  detail.  There  are  more 
windows  on  one  side  than  on  the  other,  the  chimney-stacks  are 
placed  haphazard,  the  windows  in  the  roof  do  not  correspond, 
and  a  turret  in  the  right  wing  is  not  balanced  by  its  counterpart 
in  the  left.  The  masons  who  built  Chambord,  Denis  Sourdeau, 
Pierre  Neveu  surnamed  Trinqueau,  Jacques  Coqueau  and  Jean 
Grossier,  took  a  tremendous  time  about  their  task,  over  thirty 
years,  if  we  include  prolonged  intervals  of  idleness.  In  1530, 
after  his  return  from  Madrid,  Francis  I  employed  as  many  as 
1800  workmen.  The  timbers  of  the  roof  were  put  up  in  1534, 
but  the  castle  was  only  completed  about  1550.  As  a  matter  of 
fact,  it  is  little  more  than  a  splendid  fa9ade  erected  in  front  of 
a  magnificent  staircase,  a  monumental  and  imposing  piece  of 
work.  The  castle  is  uninhabitable  ;  it  was  the  artistic  whim 
of  a  rich  and  extravagant  monarch.  It  is,  nevertheless,  remark- 
able in  every  way  as  an  illustration  of  the  genesis  of  Renaissance 
architecture  and  the  conditions  under  which  this  art  developed. 
It  was  above  all  on  his  return  from  captivity  in  Madrid  that 
Francis  I  indulged  his  passion  for  building.  He  opened  build- 
ing-yards almost  everywhere  ;  in  Paris  he  conceived  the  idea  of 
altering  the  old  castle  of  the  Louvre  and  making  it  suitable  for 
habitation.  At  his  command  the  great  tower  which  occupied 
the  court  of  the  fortress  was  pulled  down  in  1528.  The  public 
regretted  this  step  for,  as  the  Journal  d'un  Bourgeois  de  Paris 
says,  "  it  was  fair,  lofty,  and  strong."  The  interior  was  rebuilt, 
and  large  reception-rooms,  kitchens,  and  stables  were  added  on 
the  side  of  the  Rue  Froidmantel  on  the  west.  In  1534  the 
Court  was  able  to  take  up  its  abode  in  the  Louvre.  At  the 
same  time,  according  to  the  Bourgeois  de  Paris,  the  King  set  on 
foot  at  the  very  gates  of  Paris  "  near  the  Bois  de  Boulogne  and 
112 


THE    COURT    OF   FRANCIS    I 

the  convent  of  the  nuns  of  Longchamp,  the  building  and 
erection  of  a  mansion  and  pleasure-grounds  he  called  Madrid, 
because  it  resembled  the  Spanish  building  in  which  he 
had  for  so  long  been  a  prisoner  " — a  very  doubtful  statement. 
The  master-mason  who  was  given  the  contract  was  a  certain 
Pierre  Gadier.  If  the  fa9ade  of  Madrid  illustrated  by  Androuet 
du  Cerceau  in  his  Plus  excellens  hastimens  de  France  be  com- 
pared with  that  of  Blois — the  north  fa9ade  built  by  Francis  I — 
it  is  evident  that  the  builder  found  his  inspiration  in  the  loggias 
which  had  been  an  accidental  feature  of  the  latter  edifice.  In 
1532  the  Chateau  of  Villers-Cotterets  was  begun  by  the  master- 
masons  Jacques  and  Guillaume  le  Breton,  whilst  in  1533  the 
King  conceived  the  plan  of  having  the  Hotel  de  Ville  in  Paris 
reconstructed,  according  to  one  account,  by  Pierre  Chambiges 
"  foreman  of  masonry  for  the  city  of  Paris  "  and  according  to 
another  by  the  Italian  Domenico  of  Cortona  surnamed  Boccador. 
The  building,  however,  is  quite  French  and  shows  no  traces  of 
Italian  influence.  At  Saint-Germain-en-Laye,  a  favourite  spot 
of  the  King's,  it  was  decided  to  raze  to  the  ground  the  old 
pentagonal  feudal  castle  which  stood  there,  and  build  in  its 
place  a  new  edifice  which  would  be  well  lighted,  airy,  lofty,  and 
spacious.  This  new  castle,  which  had  the  same  ground  plan  as 
the  former  structure,  was  built  in  1539  by  the  master-masons 
Pierre  Chambiges,  Guillaume  Guillain,  and  Jean  Langeois,  who 
borrowed  their  ideas  from  the  Chateau  de  Madrid.  But 
Francis  I's  favourite  spot,  where  he  preferred  to  live  towards 
the  end  of  his  life,  the  home  he  really  loved,  was  Fontainebleau. 
"A  harmony  of  age  and  season,"  says  Michelet,  "Fon- 
tainebleau is  essentially  an  autumn  landscape,  most  original, 
Fontainebleau.  most  wild,  and  yet  most  gentle  and  most  serene. 
With  its  sun-baked  rocks,  giving  shade  to  the  invalid,  its 
fantastic  shadows,  empurpled  by  October  tints,  which  set 
one  dreaming  ere  winter  comes  ;  and  with  the  little  Seine  a 
stone's  throw  away  flowing  between  golden  vineyards,  it  forms 
a  delicious  retreat  in  which  to  rest  and  drink  what  remains  of 
life's  cup  !  "  According  to  Benvenuto  Cellini,  Fontainebleau 
was  "  the  spot  in  his  kingdom  which  Francis  I  loved  best." 
The  King  began  building  operations  there  in  1528.  In  this 
case  also  an  old  pentagonal  castle  dating  from  the  time  of 

H  113 


CENTURY    OF   THE    RENAISSANCE 

Louis  VII  and  Saint  Louis  stood  upon  the  site.  Without  more 
ado  the  builders  razed  the  old  edifice  to  the  ground,  and  on  its 
foundations  built  the  new  palace.  This  accounts  for  the  curious 
shape  of  the  oval  court.  The  keep,  at  the  back,  and  the  chapel 
of  Saint  Saturnin  were  alone  preserved.  From  a  distance  the 
general  effect  is  not  imposing.  It  is  difficult  to  say  why  Francis  I 
conceived  the  idea  of  building  the  great  court,  afterwards 
called  the  Cour  du  Cheval  Blanc,  farther  on,  and  joining  the  two 
buildings  by  a  gallery,  the  Galerie  de  Fran9ois  I,  thus  turning 
the  castle  of  Fontainebleau  into  a  strange  series  of  isolated 
structures  without  any  logical  connexion,  forming  an  incom- 
prehensible and  inconvenient  whole.  The  only  explanation 
that  can  be  given  is  that  it  sprang  from  the  Gothic  disregard 
of  order  and  symmetry,  which  was  not  yet  extinct,  and  the 
successive  whims  of  an  owner  who  had  any  ideas  which  came 
into  his  mind  carried  out,  careless  whether  they  were  compatible 
with  what  already  existed.  The  master-masons  responsible  for 
the  building  were  Gilles  le  Breton  and  Pierre  Chambiges.  The 
name  of  Serlio  has  been  mentioned  and  is  still  mentioned  in  this 
connexion.  But  Serlio  did  not  come  to  France  until  1541, 
when  the  castle  had  been  furnished  for  eight  or  nine  years. 
After  his  long  wanderings  Francis  I  was  glad  to  go  to  Fontaine- 
bleau "  for  recreation,  inasmuch  as  the  place  and  the  country 
were  fair  and  pleasant  and  fit  for  the  pursuit  of  the  chase." 
He  had  his  own  suite  of  rooms  there,  in  the  decoration  of  which 
he  took  great  interest,  superintending  it  in  person. 

To  carry  out  this  decoration,  which  was  begun  about 
1532,  he  had  recourse  to  Italian  workmen.  Here  indeed  the 
influence  of  Italy  in  France  is  an  ascertained  fact.  The  employ- 
ment of  transalpine  craftsmen  in  this  case  was  due  to  several 
reasons.  In  the  first  place,  France  was  somewhat  poor  in 
artists.  In  fact  there  were  practically  none  of  any  note,  with 
the  exception  of  the  Clouets,  who  were  portrait -painters  about 
whom  little  is  known.  They  were  true  to  the  realistic  French 
traditions  in  art,  though  they  displayed  consummate  tact  and 
restraint  in  their  adherence  to  it,  more  especially  in  those  chalk 
drawings,  with  their  clear  strong  technique,  which  were  so 
fashionable  in  the  sixteenth  century.  When  Charles  V  paid  his 
visit  to  France  the  King  wanted  to  make  him  a  present  of  a 
114 


THE    COURT    OF   FRANCIS    I 

Hercules  in  chased  silver.  A  pitiable  piece  of  work  was  sub- 
mitted to  him  which  the  Parisian  craftsmen  assured  him  was 
the  best  that  could  be  produced.  Moreover,  Francis  I,  a  man 
of  taste  and  culture,  loved  to  surround  himself  with  works  of 
art,  and  in  the  top  story  of  the  Pavilion  Saint  Louis  at  Fontaine- 
bleau  he  had  a  cabinet  where  he  kept  vases,  medals,  statuettes, 
and  drawings,  which  he  used  frequently  to  visit.  Merchants 
made  purchases  for  him  almost  everywhere  abroad,  of  tapestries, 
gold-  and  silversmith's  work,  and  engraved  gems.  Pictures  also 
figured  in  his  collections.  He  had  a  number  of  canvases 
brought  from  Italy,  including  Salviati's  Portrait  of  Aretino, 
Bronzino's  Venus  and  Cupid,  Titian's  Magdalen,  Leonardo  da 
Vinci's  Gioconda,  and  Michelangelo's  Leda,  as  well  as  bronzes 
and  statues.  He  was  fully  alive  to  the  splendour  of  Italian  art 
at  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century,  the  heyday  of  the 
Italian  Renaissance.  Francis  was  not  the  first  French  king 
who  had  thought  of  summoning  artists  to  France  to  carry  out 
under  his  own  eyes  the  works  he  wished  to  possess.  Louis  XII 
made  unsuccessful  attempts  to  secure  the  services  of  Leonardo 
da  Vinci,  and  the  family  of  Amboise  had  employed  Andrea 
Solario.     The    first    artist   of   any   importance   whom  Francis 

I  asked  to  enter  his  service  and  who  consented  to  do  so  was 

II  Rosso. 

II  Rosso,  who  was  summoned  to  Fontainebleau  in  1531, 
undertook  the  decoration  of  the  gallery  called  the  Galerie  de 
Italian  artists  Fran9ois  I,  and  worked  on  it  until  1541.  The 
at  Fontaine-  work  as  we  now  see  it  was  very  much  restored 
bleau.  under  Louis  Philippe.     It  was  a  product  of  purely 

Italian  decorative  art  and  possessed  all  its  qualities  and  defects. 
French  taste  in  no  way  modified  the  transalpine  conceptions  of 
the  artist,  which  it  must  have  done  with  singular  success  in  the 
domain  of  architecture,  if  Italian  architects  were  really  respon- 
sible for  the  French  Renaissance  chateaux.  After  II  Rosso, 
Francis  I  summoned  Francesco  Primaticcio,  Le  Primatice,  (1504- 
1570)  to  his  Court.  This  artist  remained  in  France  until 
his  death.  He  helped  II  Rosso,  continued  his  decorations  at 
Fontainebleau,  and  enjoyed  a  position  of  great  authority  under 
Henry  II.  The  generous  and  liberal  Francis  I  paid  these  men 
handsomely. 

115 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

Hearing  how  lucrative  a  position  under  Francis  I  was,  other 
artists  flocked  to  offer  their  services — among  them,  Benvenuto 
CelUni,  sculptor,  graver,  goldsmith,  chaser,  and  a  man  of 
great  talent,  though  of  somewhat  difficult  temper.  The  King 
welcomed  him  to  his  Court,  gave  him  a  conomission  to  make  a 
bronze  nymph  for  Fontainebleau,  and  employed  him  more 
particularly  on  articles  in  gold  and  silver,  such  as  a  gold  salt- 
cellar, a  silver  figure  of  Jupiter,  ewers,  and  dishes.  But  he 
kept  him  barely  five  years  in  his  service.  Around  II  Rosso 
and  Primaticcio  there  was  a  little  constellation  of  Italian  artists 
and  collaborators,  none  of  whom  attained  any  very  great 
pre-eminence.  In  addition  to  their  decorative  work,  these  men 
and  their  pupils  produced  pictures  painted  in  a  particular  style 
of  their  own.  They  were  somewhat  colourless  productions, 
devoid  of  any  very  great  vigour  or  merit,  though  not  lacking 
in  elegance  and  facility.  These  artists  are  known  as  the  painters 
of  the  Fontainebleau  School. 

The  chief  contribution  which  this  group  of  Italian  decorators 
and  Italian  influence  in  general  made  to  French  art  was  the 
The  Fontaine-  detail  of  ornament.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  in  this 
bleau  School,  sphere  their  influence  made  itself  felt  very  soon, 
rhe  egg  ornament,  spirals,  candelabra,  naked  cherubs  gambol- 
ling and  innumerable  "  grotesque  "  details  appeared  very  early 
in  the  work  of  French  artists,  and  continued  to  increase  until 
the  sixteenth  century.  If  the  statuary,  of  which  there  are  but 
few  examples  under  Francis  I,  bears  witness  in  such  works  as 
the  statues  of  the  Amboise  family,  of  Louis  de  Breze  at  Rouen, 
and  of  Admiral  de  Chabot  and  Genouillac,  to  the  maintenance 
of  the  best  qualities  of  Colombe :  simplicity,  firmness,  and 
taste,  the  intricate  and  fantastic  sculptural  ornament  of  the 
period  reveal  the  principles  of  Italian  decoration.  It  is  in  this 
domain  that  Italy  chiefly  made  her  influence  felt  in  the  artistic 
movement  which  took  place  in  France  during  the  sixteenth 
century. 

Sources.  Same  as  for  preceding  chapter  with  the  addition  on  the 
subject  of  the  Royal  Household,  of  the  French  manuscript  7853  in  the 
Bibliotheque  Nationale.  Also  Poesies  du  roi  Frangois  I"',  de  Louise  de 
Savoie,  ed.  Champollion-Figeac,  1847  ;  Lettres  de  Catherine  de  Mddicis, 
ed.  La  Ferriere,  1880  ;  Th.  Hubert,  De  vita  et  rebus  gestis  Frederici  II, 
1624  ;  Benvenuto  Cellini,  Mdmoires,  ed.  Leclanche,  1843  ;  Deville,  Comptes 
116 


THE    COURT    OF   FRANCIS    I 

de  ddpenses  de  la  construction  du  chateau  de  Gaillon,  1850  ;  Compte  des 
bdtimens  du  roi,  de  1528  d,  1571,  1877  ;  A.  du  Cerceau,  Les  plus  excellens 
hastimens  de  France,  1576. 

Works.  Same  as  for  preceding  chapter  and  Rouard,  Frangois  I"" 
chez  M""  de  Boisy,  1863  ;  Louis  de  Breze,  Les  chasses  sou^  Frangois  I'% 
1869  ;  De  Boislisle,  Semblan^ay  et  la  surintendance  des  finances  {Annuaire- 
Bulletin  de  la  Soc.  de  Vhist.  de  France,  1881) ;  Jacqueton,  Semblangay, 
1895  ;  Petit  de  JuUeville,  Histoire  de  la  langue  et  de  la  littirature  frangaises, 
vol.  iii,  1897  ;  Darmesteter  and  Hatzfeld,  Le  XVF  siecle  en  France,  1883  ; 
Faguet,  XVI"  siecle,  Mudes  litteraires,  1893  ;  L.  Delisle,  Le  cabinet  des 
manuscrits  de  la  Bibliotheque  imperiale,  1868  ;  A.  Lefranc,  Histoire  du 
College  de  France,  1893  ;  E.  Miintz,  La  Renaissance  en  Italic  et  en  France 
d,  Vipoque  de  Charles  VIII,  1885  ;  L.  Palustre,  La  Renaissance  en  France, 
1885  ;  E.  Miintz,  Histoire  de  fart  pendant  la  Renaissance,  1889  ;  L.  Courajod 
Legons  professes  a  Vdcole  du  Louvre,  1901  ;  P.  Vitry,  Michel  Colombe  et 
la  sculpture  frangaise  de  son  temps,  1901  ;  J.  de  Croy,  Nouveaux  documents 
pour  V histoire  de  la  creation  des  residences  royales  des  bords  de  la  Loire,  1894  ; 
Geymiiller,  Geschichte  der  Baukunst  der  Renaissance  in  Frankreich,  1896 ; 
Le  Pere  Dan,  Tresor  des  merveilles  de  Fontainebleau,  1642  ;  Dimier, 
Le  Primatice,  1900  ;  F.  Bournon,  Blots  et  les  chateaux  de  la  Loire,  1908. 


117 


CHAPTER  IV 

EXTERNAL  PEACE.    HENRY  II 

Henry  II,  1547-1559.  Queen  Catherine  de'  Medici  and  her  Court ; 
the  King's  children ;  Mary  Stuart ;  Diane  de  Poitiers  ;  his  coun- 
sellors— Constable  Montmorency,  Duke  Francis  of  Guise  and  the 
Guise  family.  Clearness  and  precision  of  French  policy  under 
Henry  II ;  determination  to  renounce  Italy,  to  conquer  in  the  north, 
and  to  secure  peace.  Hatred  of  Henry  II  for  Charles  V.  Short  war 
with  England  and  the  capture  of  Boulogne,  1550.  The  German 
princes  solicit  his  intervention  :  conquest  of  the  three  bishoprics — 
Metz,  Toul,  and  Verdun,  1552.  Charles  V  makes  peace  with  the 
German  princes  and  lays  siege  to  Metz  ;  his  defeat,  1552-1553.  The 
hostilities  of  1554,  the  Duke  of  Guise  at  Renty.  Abdication  of 
Charles  V  :  Truce  of  Vaucelles,  1556.  Renewal  of  the  war  and  the 
disaster  of  Saint-Quentin,  1557.  Guise  seizes  Calais,  1558.  Treaty 
of  Cateau-Cambresis,  1559.  The  marriage  festivities  after  the  war, 
Henry  II  slain  at  a  joust,  1559. 

OF  the  three  sons  born  to  Francis  I,  the  second,  who 
succeeded  him  as  Henry  II,  in  1547,  at  the  age  of 
twenty-nine,  was  certainly  the  one  least  loved  by  his 
father.  There  had  always  been  a  strong  contrast  between  their 
characters.  Whereas  Francis  I  was  lively  and  outspoken, 
Character  of  Henry,  as  the  Venetian  Dandolo  writes,  was 
Henry  II.  "  sombre    and   taciturn    by    nature.     He    rarely 

laughs,  so  rarely,  indeed,  that  many  persons  about  the  Court 
assert  that  they  have  never  seen  him  do  so."  He  was  a  great 
hunter,  "all  muscles,"  and  had  the  reputation  of, having 
developed  his  physical  qualities  at  the  expense  of  everything 
else.  "He  has  more  bodily  than  spiritual  virtue,"  said 
Tavannes.  His  melancholy  was  supposed  to  be  the  result  of 
the  indelible  impression  made  upon  him  by  his  imprisonment 
in  Spain.  Francis  I  had  other  reasons  for  not  being  particularly 
proud  of  him,  such  as  the  little  zeal  he  showed  for  learning, 
118 


EXTERNAL   PEACE.     HENRY    II 

and  above  all  his  intrigue  with  Diane  de  Poitiers,  a  woman 
twenty  years  older  than  himself.  Henry  II  was  to  reign  for 
twelve  years  and  three  months,  and  to  die  in  the  prime  of  life 
at  the  age  of  forty-one,  as  the  result  of  an  accident. 

The  coolness  felt  by  Francis  I  for  his  son  was  not  shared  by 
those  who  came  into  intimate  contact  with  the  new  King.  Tall 
and  strongly  built,  extremely  elegant  in  appearance,  and  with 
every  sign  of  race  about  him,  Henry  II  was  one  of  the  finest 
gentlemen  among  French  monarchs.  On  his  well-proportioned 
body  was  set  a  rather  small,  refined  head,  which  was,  however, 
devoid  of  much  expression  owing  to  the  vague  melancholy 
which  overshadowed  his  features.  His  complexion  was  very 
dark  ;  according  to  Brantome  "  he  looked  slightly  Moorish." 
His  hair  and  beard  were  black,  but  he  turned  grey  very  young. 
He  had  the  appearance  of  a  man  who  enjoyed  good  health  ;  he 
was  sound  in  body,  solidly  built,  and  robust,  and  would  have 
had  a  tendency  to  grow  stout  had  not  a  sober  life  and  plenty  of 
exercise  preserved  his  royal  dignity  of  bearing.  The  only 
complaint  from  which  he  suffered  was  headache. 

He  lived  a  regular  and  methodical  life.  Rising  early,  he 
began  the  day  by  holding  a  Council  of  State  with  the  three  or 
four  high  officials  on  whose  experience  and  judgment  he  relied 
during  his  reign.  This  council  was  called  "  the  select  council." 
Then,  every  morning,  he  went  to  mass,  which  he  attended 
devoutly,  for  he  was  a  religious  man.  After  this,  having  but  a 
small  appetite,  he  partook  of  a  frugal  dinner  ;  he  would  then 
read  a  little,  go  for  a  ride,  and,  two  or  three  times  a  week,  hunt, 
or  else  grant  audiences.  His  manner  on  such  occasions  was 
easy,  courteous,  and  amiable.  Like  a  true  man  of  the  world, 
he  took  care  to  give  offence  to  no  one.  Nobody  left  his  presence 
dissatisfied,  wrote  Giovanni  Soranzo,  whom  he  frequently 
received.  He  gladly  granted  anything  he  was  asked  and  did 
so  right  royally,  showing  himself  "  extremely  affable  and  kind  " 
to  all.  Endowed  with  a  very  good  memory,  he  never  forgot 
persons  whom  he  had  once  seen,  which  flattered  their  vanity. 
He  spoke  Italian  and  Spanish.  At  the  end  of  the  day  he  used 
to  spend  an  hour  with  Diane  de  Poitiers,  after  which  he  supped 
in  public,  when  he  enjoyed  talking  to  the  people  about  him. 
His  evenings  he  reserved  for  receptions  given  by  the  Queen, 

119 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

Catherine  de'  Medici,  who  every  night  had  a  gathering  of  the  lords 
and  ladies  of  the  Court  in  her  apartments.     He  would  then  con- 
verse with  everybody  in  a  friendly  fashion,  and  retire  early  to  bed. 
But  Henry  II  was  above  all  a  "  sportsman."     He  was  a 
very  good  rider  and  had  a  passion  for  horses,  of  which  he  had 
numbers  in  his  possession.     He  exercised  a  personal  super- 
vision over  his  studs  at  Mehun,  Saint-Leger  and  Oiron,  and  took 
a  delight  in  showing  off  the  most  beautiful  animals  in  his  stables. 
He  was  particularly  fond  of  hunting,  chiefly  stag- hunting,  and 
rode  to  the  chase  with  his  packs  of  grey  hounds  and  white 
hounds.     On  a  journey  he  would  hunt  all  along  the  route  to 
pass  the  time.     But  he  also  indulged  in  every  other  form  of 
physical  exercise.     He  played  tennis,  ball,  football,  and  mall, 
and  also  shot,  although  he  had  a  painful  recollection  of  having 
when  he  was  Dauphin  shot  out  the  eye  of  one  of  his  equerries, 
M.  de  Boucard.     He  was  an  admirable  skater,  and  it  was  one 
of  the  joys  of  his  Court  to  watch  him  cutting  elegant    and 
difficult  figures  on  the  ice  when  the  pond  at  Fontainebleau  was 
frozen.     But  above  all  he  loved  to  take  part  in  the  great  games 
of  the  period :   jousts  on  horseback,  when  two  riders,  armed 
from  head  to  foot,  charged  from  either  end  of  an  enclosure 
and   tried  to  unseat   each  other  by  a  violent  thrust   of    the 
lance,  running  the  risk  of   shivering  the  weapon  against  the 
mailed  breastplate    of  the    adversary ;   and    the  tournament, 
a  violent   meUe  of   mounted  knights  in   heavy   armour  who 
endeavoured  to  unhorse  each  other  by  lance  thrusts ;  this  was 
a  real  battle  in  miniature.     It  was  this  love  of  sport  which  led 
him  at  the  beginning  of  his  reign  to  give  his  consent  somewhat 
carelessly  to  a  certain  duel  in  order  to  provide  a  spectacle  for 
the  Court.     The  combatants  were  two  young  noblemen,  Jarnac 
and    La    Chataigneraie,    who    were    exasperated    because   the 
former  had  cast   some    aspersion  upon    the   latter's  honour. 
Francis  I  had  forbidden  them  to  fight  as  the  point  at  issue  was 
both  uncertain  and  futile.     But  Henry  II  ordered  the  duel  to 
take  place,  and  it  was  fought  with  great  solemnity.     Jarnac, 
with  two  thrusts  of  his  sword  cut  through  his  adversary's  leg, 
and  so  brought  him  to  the  ground,  but  there  was  some  difficulty 
in  persuading  Henry  II  to  stop  the  fight  and  allow  La  Chataig- 
neraie to  escape  with  his  life. 
120 


EXTERNAL   PEACE.     HENRY   II 

A  man  of  sport,  Henry  II  had  but  little  love  of  art  and 
letters.  He  was  fairly  fond  of  music  and  willingly  attended 
the  concerts  held  in  the  Queen's  apartments,  but  he  did  not 
know  much  about  it.  He  regarded  everything  of  an  artistic 
nature  as  superfluous,  though  he  confessed  that  he  too  would 
have  started  the  building  of  some  great  mansion  had  the 
termination  of  the  war  given  him  the  leisure  to  do  so.  But, 
unfortunately,  the  war  only  ended  at  his  death.  As  he  held 
the  profession  of  letters  in  low  esteem  he  naturally  had  no  very 
high  opinion  of  writers.  He  preferred  soldiers,  and  kept  all 
his  honours  and  pensions  for  them. 

To  sum  up,  he  was,  on  the  whole,  a  gentle  and  gracious 
monarch.  His  letters,  published  by  J.  B.  Gail,  are  those  of  a 
man  of  much  fine  feeling  and  great  staunchness  in  his  friend- 
ships, which  were  constant,  deep,  unchangeable  and  free  from 
all  stiffness  and  hauteur.  He  was  an  excellent  father  who 
adored  his  children  and  took  great  care  of  their  health,  insisting 
upon  their  having  a  change  of  air  as  soon  as  any  danger 
threatened  them.  On  his  return  from  a  journey  he  would 
gallop  ahead  of  all  his  suite  in  order  to  clasp  them  in  his  arms 
the  sooner.  His  tenderness  was  touching  to  behold.  Those 
whom  he  loved,  he  loved  with  all  his  heart ;  but  whether  his 
wife,  Catherine  de'  Medici,  was  included  in  the  number  is  open 
to  question. 

Queen  Catherine  de'  Medici  could  hardly  be  called  an 
attractive  woman.  She  was  the  same  age  as  her  husband,  her 
Catherine  de'  birthday  falling  barely  a  fortnight  later  than  his. 
Medici  and  She  was  afflicted  with  a  fat,  coarse  face,  crowned 
her  Court.  by  black  hair,  large  goggle  eyes,  heavy  eyebrows, 

a  big  nose,  loose,  pouting  lips,  surmounting  a  body  which  lost 
its  shape  very  early  in  life.  The  bourgeoise  granddaughter  of 
Florentine  bankers  and  merchants,  she  was  distinctly  ugly. 
But  to  counterbalance  this,  she  became  a  great  lady  of  high 
importance  when  she  was  very  young.  She  was  intelligent, 
possessed  considerable  discrimination  and  prudence,  and,  more- 
over, displayed  the  impenetrable  reserve  of  an  Italian  woman 
who  has  suffered  and  thought  much.  From  the  first,  during  the 
reign  of  Francis  I,  when  she  felt  that  she  was  unwelcome  on 
account  of  her  origin,  she  had  studied  to  achieve  an  attitude 

121 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

of  modest  retirement  and  to  please  every  one  by  her  agreeable 
manners.  And  she  had  succeeded.  Francis  I,  with  whom  she 
used  to  ride  out  to  the  hunt,  appreciated  her  intelligent  firm- 
ness, and  was  fond  of  her  ;  whilst  she  won  the  sympathy  of  the 
Duchesse  d'fitampes,  as  well  as  of  Montmorency,  Brion,  dAnne- 
baut,  and  all  who  had  influence  at  Court.  But  she  kept  a  very 
strict  watch  over  her  own  conduct. 

As  soon  as  she  became  Queen,  however,  she  was  trans- 
formed into  an  accomplished  hostess,  who  received  a  great  deal. 
Her  amiability  was  unstinted,  and  she  made  herself  charming 
and  attractive  to  everybody.  People  were  enchanted  with  her, 
and  the  whole  Court  considered  her  perfection  itself.  She 
dressed  as  a  rule  simply  and  in  a  severe  style  ;  but  on  reception 
days  she  wore  extremely  rich  and  elegant  clothes,  covered  with 
numberless  chased  ornaments,  for  the  designs  of  which  she 
herself  gave  instructions  to  her  goldsmiths.  She  conferred 
incomparable  order  and  brilliancy  upon  Court  gatherings,  and 
as  she  inherited  vast  wealth  from  her  family,  she  spared  no 
outlay  in  order  to  increase  the  success  of  her  receptions.  Her 
table  was  abundantly  supplied.  She  attached  to  her  person  a 
host  of  ladies-in-waiting  and  maids-of-honour  in  order  to  make 
sure  that  the  composition  of  her  gatherings  should  be  in 
accordance  with  her  wishes.  She  was  generous  in  her  distribu- 
tion of  costly  gifts  to  those  about  her,  and  showed  herself  very 
kind-hearted  in  finding  husbands  and  providing  dowries  for 
young  girls,  spending  a  great  deal  on  clothes  for  her  dependents 
and  giving  generous  help  to  one  and  all.  This  conduct  was  not 
calculated  on  her  part.  For  her  husband  was  young  and 
strong,  and  she  had  nothing  to  expect  or  to  fear.  But  she  was 
a  woman  of  the  world  who  loved  to  receive,  and  as  she  was  in 
a  position  to  do  so,  she  indulged  lavishly  in  her  favourite 
pastime. 

The  Court  became  the  centre  of  a  society  which  was  one  of 
the  most  brilliant  that  has  ever  existed.  Fair  ladies  and 
young  lords  full  of  life  formed  the  magnetic  nucleus  attracting 
the  best  people  in  the  kingdom,  who  flocked  from  all  quarters. 
An  uninterrupted  succession  of  balls,  musical  evenings,  and 
banquets  took  place.  "  The  Court  of  Catherine  de'  Medici," 
wrote  Brantome,  "  was  a  veritable  earthly  paradise  and  a 
122 


EXTERNAL   PEACE.     HENRY   II 

school  for  all  the  chivalry  and  flower  of  France.  Ladies  shone 
there  like  stars  in  the  sky  on  a  fine  night."  The  Queen  pre- 
sided over  everything  with  grace  and  dignity.  "  You  alone  are 
Queen,"  Pietro  Aretino  told  her,  "  you  are  both  woman  and 
goddess  !  "  Much  more  intelligent  than  her  husband,  she 
extended  her  patronage  to  artists  and  men  of  letters.  She 
employed  Delia  Robbia  and  Leonard  Limosin,  the  enamellist, 
chose  Amyot  as  a  tutor  for  her  children,  and  arranged  per- 
formances of  the  works  of  Mellin  de  Saint-Gelais.  Later  on  in 
the  seventeenth  century  she  was  credited — as  a  matter  of  fact 
erroneously — with  the  introduction  of  refinement  into  the 
French  Court  by  the  inculcation  of  Italian  manners.  Sur- 
rounded by  charming  princesses — her  sister-in-law  Margaret,  a 
dainty  and  distinguished  personality  who  presented  Ronsard  to 
her,  and  encouraged  du  Bellay — her  son's  little  wife,  Mary 
Stuart,  and  her  own  daughters,  she  directed  this  life  of  luxury 
and  pleasure  with  tact  and  discrimination. 

For  her  husband,  that  distinguished,  somewhat  cold,  but 
extremely  fascinating  prince,  she  had  a  real  passion.  She 
worshipped  him  and  was  terrified  of  displeasing  him,  though 
she  was  fully  aware  that  Henry  II  felt  nothing  but  respect 
for  her.  In  1560  she  wrote  to  her  daughter,  the  Queen 
of  Spain,  "  You  have  seen  me  as  contented  as  yourself,  never 
imagining  the  possibility  of  any  other  trouble  than  that  of  not 
being  loved  as  well  as  I  could  wish  by  the  King  your  father, 
who  honoured  me  more  than  I  deserved.  But  I  loved  him  so 
much  that,  as  you  know,  I  was  always  afraid."  The  knowledge 
that  she  did  not  possess  the  whole  of  his  affection  was  a  cause 
of  unhappiness  to  her  ;  and  she  stood  in  dread  of  alienating 
him  even  further.  When  he  went  out  to  war,  she  put  on 
mourning  and  begged  the  Court  to  pray  for  the  success  of  their 
absent  King.  She  brought  up  her  children  to  respect  their 
father,  and  after  his  death  she  revered  his  memory. 

Henry  II  thoroughly  appreciated  his  wife.  He  felt  her 
superiority  and  had  great  faith  in  her  judgment.  But  she 
never  inspired  him  with  love.  In  the  course  of  time  he  drew 
nearer  to  her  and  would  tell  her  political  secrets,  ask  her  advice, 
and  give  proofs  of  a  sympathy  which,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  he 
had  always  felt.     In  public,  he  never  failed  to  show  her  every 

123 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

possible  mark  of  respect,  honour,  and  deference.  But  his 
heart  and  his  affections  were  in  the  keeping  of  another. 

The  royal  couple  were  long  without  children.  They  had 
none  for  ten  years,  and  Catherine  began  to  despair.  There  was 
Henry  II's  some  talk  of  annulling  the  marriage.  Catherine 
children.  threw  herself  in  tears  at  the  feet  of  Francis  I, 

offering  to  sacrifice  herself,  and  consenting  to  retire  into  a 
convent.  Francis  I,  with  his  usual  gallantry,  raised  her  up, 
and  kissing  her,  told  her  that  she  was  his  daughter-in-law 
and  was  to  remain  so.  Subsequently  she  had  ten  children 
in  thirteen  years,  thus  giving  rise  to  some  little  consternation. 
"  As  their  Majesties  are  yet  young,"  wrote  one  of  the  ambas- 
sadors, "  they  are  afraid  of  having  more  children  than  they 
ought,  for  the  King  is  desirous  of  leaving  to  each  one  of  them  a 
heritage  in  keeping  with  the  greatness  of  his  name."  Catherine 
was  a  very  good  mother.  She  was  sedulous  in  her  attention 
to  the  smallest  details  in  the  lives  of  the  young  princes,  and, 
when  she  was  separated  from  them,  wrote  every  day  to  their 
governess,  Madame  d'Humieres.  Her  two  daughters,  Elisabeth 
and  Claude,  she  decided  to  bring  up  herself. 

Three  out  of  the  ten  children,  a  boy  and  twins,  died  in 
infancy.  The  seven  others  consisted  of  four  sons  and  three 
daughters.  Elisabeth,  the  eldest  girl,  eventually  became 
Queen  of  Spain  ;  the  second,  Claude,  was  given  to  the  Duke  of 
Lorraine,  whilst  the  third,  Margaret,  was  the  vivacious,  intelli- 
gent and  sparkling  Margaret  of  Valois,  the  wife  of  Henry  IV, 
"  Queen  Margot,"  as  she  was  called,  whose  life  was  so  gay  and 
so  brilliant.  Of  the  four  sons,  the  youngest,  Francis,  Duke  of 
Alengon,  died  young,  and  the  three  others  were  the  last  three 
Kings  of  the  House  of  Valois — Francis  II,  Charles  IX,  and 
Henry  III,  the  feeble  scions  of  an  exhausted  race,  dying  out 
amidst  the  pleasures,  the  festivities  and  the  bloodstained  dramas 
of  an  involved  policy. 

The  eldest  of  the  whole  family,  the  Dauphin  Francis,  was, 
at  the  age  of  fourteen,  a  fairly  pleasing  youth.  He  was  well- 
proportioned  and  his  figure  was  made  yet  more  attractive 
by  the  becoming  Henri  II  costume  of  about  1555,  He 
favoured  his  mother,  rather  than  his  father.  Of  a  melan- 
choly temperament,  and  subject  to  fits  of  anger  and  obstinacy, 
124 


EXTERNAL    PEACE.     HENRY   II 

he  was  also  lazy,  a  characteristic  which  was  extremely  irritating 
to  his  father.  Henry  II  adopted  in  his  case  the  opposite 
system  to  that  which  Francis  I  had  followed,  and  made  his 
son  attend  council  meetings  when  he  was  quite  young,  in  order 
to  initiate  him  into  his  duties.  In  1558,  when  he  was  fourteen, 
Mary  Stuart,  his  father  married  him  to  the  only  daughter 
of  the  King  of  Scotland,  Mary  Stuart,  who  came  to  live 
at  the  French  Court.  This  exquisite,  dainty  child,  destined 
to  a  tragic  end,  was  very  fair,  with  delicate  features.  She 
was  the  joy  of  the  Court,  "  that  little  Scottish  queenlet,  who 
had  only  to  smile  to  turn  every  Frenchman's  head,"  wrote 
Catherine  de'  Medici.  She  sang  well,  played  the  lute,  and 
was  an  excellent  musician.  She  was  also  learned  ;  she  knew 
several  languages,  could  write  in  Latin,  took  lessons  in  poetry 
from  Ronsard,  and  was  loved  by  all  with  whom  she  came  in 
contact.  Henry  II  delighted  in  her.  "  The  King  has  taken 
such  a  fancy  to  the  queen,  your  daughter,"  wrote  the  Cardinal 
of  Lorraine,  to  the  Queen  of  Scotland,  Mary  Stuart's  mother, 
"  that  he  is  content  to  spend  a  whole  hour  in  talking  to  her, 
and  she  is  quite  as  capable  of  entertaining  him  with  good  and 
wise  conversation  as  a  woman  of  five  and  twenty." 

But  in  addition  to  Catherine  de'  Medici  and  Mary  Stuart, 
there  was  another  woman  who  filled  the  Court  of  Henry  II 
with  the  brilliance  of  her  name  and  the  splendour  of  her  reputa- 
tion :  Diane  de  Poitiers.  Hers  is  a  singular  history — the 
strange  romance  of  the  heroine  whose  fame  was  sung  by  poets, 
whom  artists  depicted  in  so  many  admirable  forms,  and  who 
throughout  the  centuries  has  preserved  such  an  extraordinary 
halo  of  love  and  beauty  !  The  truth  is  more  modest,  and 
perhaps  more  enigmatic. 

Born  in  1499,  Diane  was  the  eldest  daughter  of  Jean  de 
Poitiers,  Sieur  de  Saint- Vallier,  a  gentleman  of  Dauphiny,  who 
Diane  de  had  been  compromised  in  the  plot  of  Constable 

Poitiers.  Bourbon  by  the  fact  that  he  had  not  revealed 

what  he  knew  about  the  conspiracy.  Diane  has  been  credited 
with  having  saved  her  father's  head  by  sacrificing  her  honour, 
an  episode  upon  which  Victor  Hugo  founded  his  play  Le  Roi 
s'amuse.  It  has  been  proved,  however,  that  this  act  on  her 
part  was  neither  probable  nor  even  possible.     She  was  married 

125 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

at  the  age  of  fifteen  to  a  humpbacked  old  nobleman,  Louis  de 
Breze,  Count  of  Maulevrier,  Lord  High  Seneschal  of  Normandy,  to 
whom  she  was  faithful.  She  bore  him  two  daughters  and  was 
left'a  widow  at  the  age  of  thirty-three.  She  raised  a  superb 
mausoleum  to  her  husband,  still  to  be  seen  in  Rouen  cathedral, 
and  made  a  vow  to  dress  always  in  black  and  white  She  was 
a  tall,  beautiful  woman,  of  majestic  bearing,  proud  *and  impos- 
ing. She  bore  a  certain  resemblance  to  the  Countess  of  Chateau- 
briant,  though,  to  judge  by  the  drawings  of  the  period,  her 
features  were  less  refined.  But  she  possessed  greater  distinc- 
tion of  mind  and  character.  Extremely  cold  and  calm,  she 
had  a  resolute  spirit  and  a  well-balanced  judgment.  Her 
letters,  which  have  been  published,  reveal  no  sign  of  a  romantic 
imagination,  but  rather  a  precise  and  definite  common  sense, 
combined  with  a  certain  dryness,  and  a  lack  of  enthusiasm  and 
spontaneity. 

Henry  II,  while  he  was  still  Dauphin,  saw  her  at  Court  and 
fell  deeply  in  love  with  her.  He  was  seventeen  at  the  time 
and  she  was  thirty-six.  His  family  was  very  angry  and 
Francis  I  reprimanded  his  son  severely,  but  without  effect ; 
for  in  later  years,  Henry  II  was  able  to  remind  Diane  that 
he  had  not  been  afraid  to  risk  losing  his  father's  favour 
on  her  account.  Catherine  de'  Medici  was  greatly  distressed, 
but  Henry  II  was  immovable,  and  as  soon  as  he  became  King 
he  made  no  further  attempt  to  hide  his  infatuation.  He 
created  Diane  Duchess  of  Valentinois,  overwhelmed  her  with 
gifts  of  money,  and  loaded  her  with  crown  jewels,  which  she 
kept  until  his  death.  He  took  her  with  him  on  his  journeys, 
and  at  each  place  where  he  was  given  a  reception  the  authorities 
in  their  speeches  made  allusions  to  the  favourite,  whilst  on 
the  triumphal  arches,  crescents,  or  figures  of  Diana  the  Huntress 
accentuated  their  flattery.  Henry  II  adopted  her  colours — 
black  and  white — as  his  own.  He  chose  as  an  emblem  a 
crescent  moon,  and  when  he  wrote  to  her  he  signed  his  letters 
with  the  familiar  monogram  of  an  H  and  two  interlaced 
crescents  which  might  also  stand  for  two  D's  (Diane).  His 
letters,  which  have  been  published,  bear  witness  to  the  extreme 
tenderness  he  felt  for  her.  "  I  cannot  live  without  you,"  he 
would  say  ;  "  He  who  loves  you  more  than  himself  "  ;  "I  beg 
126 


EXTERNAL    PEACE.      HENRY    II 

you  to  remember  him  who  has  kno^vn  but  one  God  and  one 
love."  Henry  II  preserved  this  passion  in  all  its  intensity  to 
the  day  of  his  death.  In  1558  he  worte  to  Diane,  "  I  beseech 
you  ever  to  remember  one  who  has  never  loved  and  never  will 
love  any  woman  but  you.  I  pray  you,  my  beloved,  wear  this 
ring  for  the  love  of  me."  Yet  he  was  forty-two  at  the  time, 
and  she  was  nearly  sixty,  old  enough  to  be  a  grandmother, 
with  grey  hair  and  wrinkled  cheeks  ! 

This  passion  lasted  until  old  age,  faithful  as  a  friendship. 
Henry  and  Diane  were  both  religious,  and  used  to  pray  for  one 
another.  "  Do  not  forget  my  paternosters,"  the  King  used 
frequently  to  write  to  his  mistress  when  he  was  on  a  campaign. 
Moreover,  although  Catherine  de'  Medici  was  violently  jealous 
of  her,  Diane  played  the  unexpected  part  of  an  attentive  and 
sympathetic  friend  to  the  royal  family.  Owing  to  her  influence 
Henry  was  an  affectionate  and  considerate  husband.  Diane 
greeted  the  birth  of  each  of  the  ten  royal  children  with  great 
joy,  and  if  one  of  them,  or  the  Queen,  fell  ill,  she  displayed  a 
touching  devotion,  nursing  them  herself,  sitting  up  with 
them  at  night,  and  showing  them  every  attention.  Every  one 
noticed  that  Henry  II  never  treated  her  with  anything  but 
the  greatest  respect.  The  King  led  a  very  regular  life,  and  as 
Contarini  points  out,  he  never  gave  the  least  occasion  for 
scandal  on  the  subject  of  his  relation  to  Diane.  Marino  Cavalli, 
also,  mentioning  the  matter  to  the  Venetian  senate  in  a  letter 
written  in  1546,  compared  the  connexion  of  Diane  with  Henry  II 
to  that  of  mother  and  son.  Diane  had  a  medal  struck  of  herself 
upon  which  she  was  represented  with  the  attributes  of  the  beau- 
tiful goddess  whose  name  she  bore,  spurning  love  beneath  her 
feet ;  it  was  surrounded  by  the  symbolic  device  Omnium  victorem 
vici,  "  I  have  conquered  the  conqueror  of  all  "  ;  and  Catherine 
de'  Medici  in  after  years  wrote  to  her  son-in-law,  Henry  of 
Navarre,  the  future  Henry  IV,  these  words,  the  meaning  of 
which  is  perfectly  clear :  "  As  for  Madame  de  Valentinois,  her 
position  was  altogether  honourable  ;  but  those  women  who 
were  foolish  enough  to  make  a  scandal  about  her,  he  (the  King) 
would  have  been  sore  displeased  for  me  to  keep  in  my  service." 
And,  finally,  Henry  II,  in  a  piece  of  poetry,  laboured  and 
clumsy  enough,  which  he  composed  in  honour  of  his  friend  and 

127 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

the  original  draft  of  which  corrected  by  his  own  hand  is  still  in 
existence,  declares  the  chivalrous  nature  of  his  passion  : 

Et  si  n'estime  rien  que  sa  bonne  grace, 
Car  autre  chose  ne  veux  ni  ne  pourchasse.* 

insists  on  Diane's  calmness  : 

Et  si  ne  crains  tromperie  qu'on  me  fasse 
Etant  tant  sur  de  sa  grande  fermete  ; 
Impossible  est  qu'un  autre  ait  done  ma  place 
M'ayant  donne  si  grande  silrete-f 

and  emphasizes  the  respect  in  which  he  holds  her  : 

Quand  j'aper^ois  mon  partement  soudain, 
Et  que  je  laisse  ce  que  tant  estimai, 
Je  la  supplie  de  vouloir  donner 
Pour  grand  faveur  de  lui  baiser  la  main.^ 

In  the  light  of  all  these  facts  it  is  open  to  question  whether 
Brantome  and  posterity  have  not  been  deceived  by  appearances, 
which  certainly  seem  to  justify  all  their  suspicions,  and  whether 
we  are  not  here  confronted  by  the  exceptional  case  of  an 
intelligent  and  ambitious  woman,  who,  flattered  at  having 
inspired  so  ardent  a  passion,  encouraged  it,  but  intentionally 
kept  it  within  the  limits  of  a  respectful  friendship,  and  turned 
it  to  account  in  order  to  exercise  a  power  that  found  expression 
in  useful  and  salutary  counsels.  May  she  not  thus  have  inspired 
a  devotion  for  which  the  King  had  never  to  blush  either  in  the 
sight  of  God,  his  family,  or  his  kingdom  ?  At  all  events,  the 
point  is  doubtful. 

An  intelligent  woman,  gifted  with  moderation  and  a  sound 
judgment,  Diane  possessed  conversational  powers  which  were 

*  Nothing  I  value  but  her  kindly  grace  .  .  . 
Nor  seek  nor  follow  after  aught  beside  .  .  . 

I  No  fear  afflicts  me  that  she  may  deceive 
Who  am  so  certain  of  her  steadfastness  ; 
That  any  rival  should  usurp  my  seat 
Can  never  be,  while  such  safeguards  are  mine  ! 

J  When  I  perforce  must  face  the  sudden  hour 
Wherein  I  part  from  all  I  dearly  prize, 
I  pray  that  she  may  deign  to  offer  me 
The  supreme  favour — cleave  to  kiss  her  hand. 
128 


EXTERNAL   PEACE.     HENRY    II 

a  source  of  infinite  delight  to  Henry  II,  who  confided  all  his 
secrets  to  her,  and  consulted  her  on  all  affairs  of  State.  Her 
firmness  and  independence  made  her  a  source  of  happy  inspira- 
tion to  the  King.  "  She  was  an  extremely  clever  and  generous 
lady,"  writes  Brantome,  "  with  a  great  and  noble  heart,  and  as 
such  she  could  not  advise,  exhort,  or  persuade  the  King  to 
anything  save  to  grand,  lofty,  and  generous  actions.  And 
this,  indeed,  she  did,  as  I  know  on  reliable  authority."  "  She 
was  good,  charitable  and  extremely  generous  to  the  poor," 
continues  Brantome.  She  was  a  woman  of  taste,  and  made 
great  improvements  at  Chenonceaux,  which  Henry  II  had 
presented  to  her.  In  the  place  of  the  old  manor  of  Anet,  the 
seat  of  the  de  Brdze  family,  she  entrusted  Philibert  Delorme 
with  the  building  of  the  magnificent  castle  so  well  known  to 
fame,  for  the  decoration  of  which  she  employed  the  greatest 
artists  of  the  day.  The  King  used  frequently  to  visit  her  at 
this  sumptuous  abode,  and  would  stay  for  some  time  with  all 
his  Court,  and  even  receive  ambassadors  there.  As  the  King's 
gifts  had  made  her  extremely  rich,  she  was  able  to  meet  the 
expenses  involved  without  embarrassment. 

The  sufferings  and  tortures  of  jealousy  endured  by  Catherine 
de'  Medici  were  unspeakable  !  But  she  bore  them  in  silence, 
though  her  hatred  for  the  favourite,  in  spite  of  the  correct 
appearances  she  maintained,  was  violent  in  the  extreme.  As 
soon  as  Henry  II  died,  the  Duchess  of  Valentinois  was  obliged 
to  leave  Court,  and  the  crown  jewels  were  taken  from  her  as 
well  as  Chenonceaux.  "  The  Queen  disliked  her  so  much," 
says  Reguier  de  la  Planche,  "  that  she  would  have  liked  to  go 
much  further,  ruin  her  completely,  and  despoil  her  of  all  her 
wealth."  Saulx  Tavannes  seriously  offered  to  cut  off  Diane's 
nose,  but  the  Queen  refused.  She  was  obliged  to  tread  warily. 
But  in  the  meanwhile  during  the  King's  lifetime,  Diane  was 
all-powerful  in  the  State.  High  and  low  addressed  themselves 
to  her.  "It  is  impossible  to  exaggerate  the  pitch  to  which  the 
omnipotence  of  the  Duchess  of  Valentinois  has  attained,"  said 
the  Florentine  Ricasoli.  She  was  one  of  the  most  important 
members  of  the  King's  Council.  The  others  either  owed  their 
influence  to  her,  or  were  chosen  for  qualities  of  mind  that 
resembled  her  own. 

I  129 


CENTURY    OF    THE     RENAISSANCE 

The  chief  of  these  counsellors  was  the  Constable  Anne  de 
Montmorency.  On  the  day  following  his  accession  to  the 
Henry  IPs  throne,  Henry  II,  whom  his  father  had  kept 
Advisers  :  aloof  from  affairs  of  State,  and  who  was,  conse- 

Constable  quently,  quite  inexperienced,  summoned  the  man 

Montmorency,  ^j^q  j^g^^j  gQ  \ong  held  the  reins  of  government 
under  Francis  I :  Constable  Montmorency.  As  Dauphin, 
Henry  II  had  had  no  very  great  fondness  for  him,  but  as  King 
he  placed  the  interests  of  the  State  above  his  own  personal 
predilections.  He  proved  his  wisdom  in  so  doing.  Anne  de 
Montmorency,  a  man  of  fifty-six,  sound,  sturdy,  intelligent, 
and  with  the  details  of  administration  at  his  finger-tips,  was 
endowed  with  practical  common  sense  and  prudence,  and  was 
above  all  lucky,  for  almost  everjAthing  he  had  done  up  to  that 
moment  had  been  attended  with  success.  The  only  accusa- 
tion brought  against  him  was  that  of  harshness  and  arro- 
gance. He  was  not  much  of  a  favourite  at  the  Court,  and 
at  times  he  gave  way  to  inexorable  brutality.  For  instance, 
on  the  occasion  of  the  revolt  of  Bordeaux  in  1548,  against 
the  levy  of  the  salt -tax,  when  the  Governor  Monneins  was 
killed  by  the  people,  the  Constable  hastened  to  the  scene 
of  insurrection  with  some  troops  and  twenty  cannon.  He 
razed  the  town-hall  to  the  ground,  abolished  the  privileges  of 
the  city,  and  forced  the  inhabitants  to  make  honourable  amends 
by  digging  up  the  body  of  Monneins  with  their  fingers  in  order 
to  give  him  a  proper  burial.  He  then,  according  to  Vieilleville, 
had  over  a  hundred  persons  hanged,  broken  on  the  wheel, 
and  beheaded.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  he  was  also  reproached 
with  having  moments  of  extreme  caution,  which  were  attributed 
to  cowardice.  Henry  II  had  great  confidence  in  him ;  he 
consulted  him  in  everything  and  evinced  the  liveliest  friendship 
for  him.  Some  of  his  letters  to  the  Constable  are  still  in 
existence,  in  which  the  King  calls  him  "  my  friend  "  and  styles 
himself  "his  good  friend."  This  affection  was  both  intimate 
and  touching,  and  sprang  from  a  close  sympathy  in  their  ideas 
and  views  on  the  questions  which  formed  the  subject  of 
their  common  deliberations.  Although  Lorenzo  Contarini  de- 
clares that  Diane  and  Montmorency  were  but  rarely  in  agree- 
ment, if  we  are  to  judge  by  the  letters  that  passed  between 
130 


EXTERNAL    PEACE.      HENRY    II 

them,  they  seem,  on  the  contrary  to  have  been  united  by 
a  similar  sympathy,  the  King  forming  the  bond  of  union. 
The  King  and  the  favourite  used  to  write  joint  letters  to  the 
Constable,  signing  them :  "  Your  oldest  and  best  friends, 
Henri,  Diane."  Montmorency,  who  had  twelve  children,  five 
sons  and  seven  daughters,  took  great  pains  to  push  them  and 
find  positions  for  them.  He  was  also  solicitous  for  the  advance- 
ment of  the  children  of  his  sister,  Louise  de  Montmorency,  wife 
of  Gaspard  de  Chatillon,  Sire  de  Coligny,  who  had  been  made  a 
Marshal  under  Francis  I.  On  this  side  he  had  three  nephews, 
who  were  destined  to  become  famous  and  to  be  converted,  all 
three  of  them,  to  the  Protestant  faith :  Odet  de  Chatillon, 
Archbishop  of  Toulouse,  and  afterwards  Cardinal  de  Chatillon  ; 
Gaspard  de  Coligny,  the  Admiral ;  and  Francis,  Seigneur 
d'Andelot,  the  Colonel-General. 

In  addition  to  Montmorency,  Henry  summoned  to  his 
council  board,  Jacques  d'Albon  de  Saint- Andre,  his  old  tutor, 
whom  he  held  in  high  esteem,  and  made  a  Marshal  of  France, 
and  also  Duke  Francis  of  Guise,  a  strange  and  attrac- 
tive figure,  destined  to  win  great  popularity  by  his  victories 
and  to  perish  by  assassination  during  the  religious  wars, 
a  man  whose  family  played  a  very  prominent  part  in  French 
history  ! 

At  the  beginning  of  the  century  a  younger  son  of  the  House 
of  Lorraine,  the  third  son  of  Duke  Rene  II,  who  could  find  no 
The  Guises.  opening  at  home,  had  come  to  France  to  seek  his 
fortune.  This  was  Claude  of  Lorraine,  Count  of  Aumale. 
He  fought  bravely  at  Marignano,  and  as  a  reward  Francis  I 
created  him  Duke  of  Guise  in  1527.  His  brother,  the 
Cardinal  of  Lorraine,  was  a  very  influential  member  of  the 
King's  council.  The  power  of  the  family  increased  by  leaps 
and  bounds.  Claude  married  Antoinette  of  Bourbon,  the 
great-aunt  of  Henry  IV,  and  by  her  had  eight  sons  and  four 
daughters,  a  brilliant  family  which  was  destined  to  fill  the  latter 
half  of  the  sixteenth  century  with  the  splendour  of  its  achieve- 
ments. The  eldest  of  these  was  the  Francis  of  Guise  mentioned 
above.  He  was  about  the  same  age  as  Henry  II.  They  had 
been  brought  up  together  as  boys,  and  had  a  lively  sympathy 
with  each  other,  born  of  ideas  and  tastes  in  common.     Francis 

131 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

was  a  man  of  sterling  worth  ;  he  possessed  good  sense,  judgment, 
an  extremely  lucid  mind,  and  a  tenacity  that  was  proof  against 
every  assault.  He  was  one  of  the  most  remarkable  generals 
that  France  has  ever  had.  Full  of  energy  and  with  a  keen  eye 
for  the  right  course  of  action,  which  he  carried  out  with  elegant 
mastery,  he  inspired  the  greatest  confidence  in  his  soldiers, 
and  trained  them  admirably.  Monluc  has  done  him  justice. 
"  There  was  nobody,"  he  says,  "  who  did  not  hold  him  one  of 
the  most  alert  and  diligent  lieutenants  that  could  be  found  in 
our  day,  and,  moreover,  one  so  full  of  wisdom  in  choosing  a 
course  of  action  that  after  he  had  given  his  opinion  it  was 
impossible  to  find  a  better."  In  the  council  he  was  always  in 
favour  of  vigorous  decisions.  Until  the  death  of  his  father 
(1550)  he  bore  the  title  of  Duke  of  Aumale,  but  when  in  suc- 
cession to  the  aged  Claude,  he  became  Duke  of  Guise,  he  passed 
on  the  title  of  Aumale  to  his  third  brother,  who  was  also  called 
Claude.  Another  of  his  brothers,  Charles,  the  next  in  age  to 
himself,  who  was  born  in  1524,  was  made  Bishop  of  Rheims  at 
the  age  of  fourteen,  and  became  Cardinal  de  Lorraine  after  his 
uncle  of  the  same  name.  He  was  twenty-three  when  Henry  II 
ascended  the  throne  and  summoned  him  to  the  council.  He 
afterwards  managed  the  exchequer  with  great  ability,  but  was 
unpopular  on  account  of  his  avarice  and  want  of  frankness. 
Louis,  the  third  brother,  also  went  into  the  Church,  and  became 
Archbishop  of  Sens  and  cardinal  in  1553 — he  was  known  as 
the  Cardinal  de  Guise.  The  fifth,  who  was  named  Francis,  like 
his  eldest  brother,  became  General  of  the  Galleys  and  Grand 
Prior  of  France,  whilst  the  youngest,  Rene,  was  the  Marquis  of 
Elbeuf.  As  for  the  eldest  sister,  Mary,  a  marriage  was  con- 
trived for  her  with  James  V  of  Scotland,  by  whom  she  became 
the  mother  of  Mary  Stuart,  who  in  her  turn  was  given  to 
Henry  II's  son,  the  Dauphin. 

All  the  members  of  this  family  made  brilliant  matches, 
Duke  Francis  married  an  Italian,  Anna  d'Este,  a  granddaughter 
of  Louis  XII,  through  her  mother  Renee,  Duchess  of  Ferrara, 
The  Duke  of  Aumale  found  a  wife  in  one  of  Diane  de  Poitiers' 
two  daughters,  an  expedient  union  which,  through  the  agency 
of  the  favourite,  contributed  with  various  other  causes  towards 
securing  the  unique  position  at  Court  enjoyed  by  persons  who 
132 


EXTERNAL    PEACE.      HENRY    II 

became  more  and  more  powerful  every  day.  Their  pres- 
tige was  indeed  extraordinary !  The  younger  branch  of  a 
foreign  ruhng  house — the  House  of  Lorraine;  connected 
with  the  royal  family  through  Renee  of  France  ;  brothers 
of  a  Queen  —  the  Queen  Regent  of  Scotland ;  uncles  of 
Mary  Stuart,  the  future  Queen  of  France ;  supported  by 
two  cardinals,  one  of  whom,  it  was  said,  even  aspired  to 
the  Triple  Crown,  the  Guises  were  superior  to  all  the  best 
families  in  France  and  enjoyed  a  political  position  that  had 
no  parallel  ! 

Montmorency,  Francis  of  Guise,  and  Marshal  de  Saint -Andre 
formed  the  nucleus  of  the  council  which  Henry  II  summoned  to 
his  side  to  help  him  in  the  task  of  government.  They  were  the 
three  chief  personages  in  it.  "  Through  the  hands  of  this  trio," 
says  Monluc,  "  everything  passed,"  and  they  guided  the  policy 
of  the  nation.  Montmorency  was  the  chief,  "  The  counsellor 
of  whom  the  King  makes  most  account,"  wrote  Capello,  "  is 
the  Constable  ;  for  he  is  the  senior  in  age  and  the  man  whose 
advice  and  exploits  have  best  proved  his  zeal  and  devo- 
tion." At  the  beginning,  he  tried  to  monopolize  the  King's 
favour,  more  particularly  by  inviting  him  to  his  castles  at 
Chantilly,  ^Ecouen,  and  ITsle-Adam,  and  endeavoured  to 
establish  himself  as  the  sole  master.  But  in  this  he  did  not 
succeed. 

Henry  II  has  been  accused  of  being  a  pale  shadow,  devoid 
of  initiative  and  intelligence,  and  guided  entirely  by  his  coun- 
Precision  oJ  sellors,  who  did  exactly  as  they  pleased.  But  to 
Henry  II's  prove  the  error  of  this  view  it  would  only  be 
policy.  necessary  to  call  to  mind  the  events  which  took 

place  after  the  disaster  of  Saint- Quentin,  when  the  King, 
deprived  of  his  three  advisers,  showed  great  resolution  in  the 
conduct  of  affairs.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  though  he  had 
formed  this  council  at  the  beginning  of  his  reign,  by  reason 
of  his  inexperience,  he  derived  so  much  benefit  from  its 
deliberations,  that  he  thought  there  was  no  need  to  make  any 
change.  Very  different  in  character — Montmorency's  love  of 
temporizing  contrasting  with  the  vigour  and  activity  of  Guise 
— these  counsellors  were  of  one  mind  with  the  King  in  matters 
of  practical  common  sense.     Now  Henry  II  was  a  man  of  a 

133 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

very  lucid  mind.  "  He  is  very  definite, "  wrote  Marino  Cavalli, 
"  and  very  firm  in  his  opinions.  When  he  has  once  said  a 
thing  he  abides  by  it."  From  the  very  first  hour  of  his  reign 
he  showed  his  love  of  regular  and  sober  living,  by  changing  the 
over-dissipated  tone  his  father  had  given  to  the  Court.  He 
reduced  the  balls  and  receptions,  cut  down  the  expenses  of 
festivals,  and  exacted  less  boisterous  and  more  decorous 
manners.  In  politics,  with  the  help  of  his  counsellors,  he 
adopted  a  line  of  conduct  which  made  his  reign  one  of  the  most 
remarkable  in  French  history,  for  no  other  was  marked  by  the 
pursuit  of  so  wise  and  healthy  a  policy — a  policy  absolutely 
French,  and  exclusively  concerned  with  useful  and  tangible 
realities.  This  policy  may  be  summed  up  under  three  heads : 
Renunciation  the  ending  of  the  interminable  wars  which  for 
of  Italian  fifty  years  had  been  ruining  the  country  ;    the 

Wars.  definite  renunciation  of  the  absurd  Italian  will-o'- 

the-wisp,  which  had  beguiled  France  out  of  her  natural  channels  ; 
and,  finally,  the  re-opening  or  creation  of  these  natural  channels 
by  turning  all  martial  endeavour  in  the  direction  in  which  there 
was  a  real  necessity  for  expansion,  that  is  to  say,  to  the  north 
and  the  east,  to  regions  French  in  language  and  race,  where  the 
close  proximity  of  the  frontier  to  Paris  made  hostile  attacks 
extremely  dangerous,  and  the  smallest  defeat  fraught  with  the 
gravest  menace.  He  waged  three  wars  one  after  the  other. 
During  the  first  he  took  Boulogne  ;  during  the  second  Metz, 
Toul,  and  Verdun  ;  and  during  the  third  Calais — all  lasting 
conquests.  The  coping-stone  of  his  reign  was  the  Peace  of 
Cateau-Cambresis,  which  once  and  for  all  put  an  end  to  the 
disappointing  expeditions  for  the  conquest  of  Milan  and  Naples, 
and  secured  him  in  the  acquisitions  he  had  made.  "  His 
Majesty  in  the  course  of  conversation  with  me,"  wrote  one  of 
the  ambassadors,  *'  seemed  to  covet  peace  rather  than  to  desire 
the  greatest  victories."  But  if  it  was  necessary  to  wage  war, 
in  order  to  force  the  enemy  to  make  peace,  the  King  was  of 
opinion  that  the  French  nation  "  would  find  it  more  profit- 
able to  turn  in  this  direction  (the  east  and  the  north)  than 
to  Italy."  The  problem  thus  clearly  defined  was  firmly 
and  resolutely  solved.  And  the  credit  for  this  is  due  to 
Henry  II. 
134 


EXTERNAL  PEACE.   HENRY  II 

Of  all  the  passions  that  stirred  the  breast  of  Henry  II  on 
his  accession  to  the  throne  in  1547,  none  was  so  profound  and 
Henry  II's  vital  as  his  hatred  of  Charles  V.  The  memory  of 
hatred  of  the  painful  hours  spent  in  Spanish  dungeons  had 

Charles  V.  been  ineffaceably  branded  on  his  heart.     "  As  for 

the  Emperor,"  wrote  the  Venetian  ambassador,  "the  King 
hates  him  and  boldly  declares  his  hatred.  He  wishes  him  all 
the  evil  that  it  is  possible  to  wish  one's  most  mortal  foe,  and 
this  complaint  is  so  virulent  that  the  death  or  the  complete 
undoing  of  his  adversary  alone  can  heal  it  !  "  Henry  II's 
first  act  was  one  of  defiance  and  anger  against  his  enemy. 
Forgetful  of  the  formal  treaties  by  which  France  had  renounced 
all  suzerainty  over  Flanders,  he  summoned  the  Emperor,  as  a 
French  vassal,  to  his  coronation.  The  Emperor  replied  that 
he  would  come,  but  at  the  head  of  50,000  men,  and  it  was  clear 
that  the  truce  between  the  Empire  and  France  could  not  last, 
Henry  II  realized  this  and  made  his  preparations.  He  raised 
troops,  made  sure  of  his  usual  allies,  Turkey  and  Pope  Paul  III, 
and  in  the  spring  of  1548  carefully  visited  his  frontiers  in 
Champagne  and  Burgundy,  the  provinces  which  were  in  the 
occupation  of  France,  and  also  Savoy  and  Piedmont.  Before 
coming  to  blows  in  this  quarter  an  episode  took  place  with 
England.  Mary,  the  sister  of  the  Guises,  Queen  Regent  of 
Scotland,  was  having  great  difficulties  with  her  Protestant 
subjects,  who  were  supported  by  Edward  VI,  King  of  England. 
At  the  urgent  instigation  of  the  Guises,  Henry  II  consented  to 
help  her,  and  sent  her  6000  men.  Amongst  other  things,  there 
was  a  question  of  preventing  Edward  VI  from  marrying  Mary 
Stuart,  and  thus  uniting  the  Crowns  of  England  and  Scotland, 
and  of  arranging  a  marriage  between  the  young  princess  and  the 
Dauphin,  Henry  II's  eldest  son.  A  rupture  naturally  followed 
with  England.  Hostilities  broke  out  here  and  there,  and  finally 
Henry  II  and  Montmorency  marched  upon  Boulogne,  which  was 
Capture  of  at  that  time  an  English  possession,  and  laid  siege  to 
Boulogne,  1550.it.  The  English  Government  was  paralyzed  for 
the  moment  by  conspiracies.  It  opened  negotiations,  and  con- 
sented to  surrender  Boulogne  for  the  sum  of  400,000  crowns  on 
March  24,  1550.     This  was  the  young  King's  fxrst  victory. 

The   state   of  affairs   in   Germany   was   propitious   for  an 

135 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

attack.  After  having  conquered  the  rebelUous  Lutheran 
princes,  and  crushed  the  Elector  of  Saxony  at  Miihlberg  in 
1546,  Charles  V  considered  himself  the  undisputed  master  of 
the  Empire.  Drafts  for  changes  in  the  constitution  were 
accordingly  submitted  to  him  by  which  the  elective  principle 
was  to  be  abolished,  and  the  Imperial  Crown  made  hereditary 
in  his  family,  thus  establishing  his  uncontested  omnipotence. 
Charles  V  proved  hard  and  dictatorial.  In  order  to  shelve  the 
irritating  religious  question,  he  had  conceived  the  extraordinary 
plan  of  appointing  two  Catholic  theologians  to  collaborate  with 
one  Lutheran  in  the  drawing  up  of  a  sort  of  declaration,  a 
compromise,  which,  pending  the  decision  of  a  general  council 
on  these  matters,  he  authorized  his  subjects  of  the  reformed 
faith  to  believe  and  to  practise — Communion  in  both  kinds,  the 
marriage  of  priests,  &c.  This  basis  for  beliefs  that  were  to  be 
tolerated  was  called  the  Interim  of  Augsburg.  It  raised  a 
regular  tumult  in  the  Empire.  What  business  had  the  Emperor 
to  interfere  in  matters  that  did  not  concern  him  ?  Why  did  he 
presume  to  settle  points  of  doctrine  which  did  not  fall  within 
his  sphere  ?  The  towns  refused  to  recognize  the  Interim. 
Fearing  that  Charles  V  might  succeed  in  becoming  omnipotent 
in  Germany,  and  in  view  of  his  despotic  proceedings,  the 
German  princes  sought  a  fresh  opportunity  for  rebellion.  Alone 
and  unaided  they  could  not  do  much  ;  they  were  perforce 
driven  to  ask  the  support  of  the  monarch  whom  they  knew  to 
be  the  irreconcilable  enemy  of  Charles  V,  the  only  ruler  in 
Europe,  moreover,  strong  enough  to  help  them  at  that  moment 
— Henry  II.  From  Augsburg,  where  the  Diet  of  the  Holy 
Negotiations  Roman  Empire  was  sitting,  an  embassy  was 
with  the  dispatched  to  Fontainebleau,  consisting  of  over 

German  princes,  g,  hundred  horsemen  headed  by  William,  Count 
of  Nassau,  the  father  of  William  the  Silent.  The  deputation 
was  very  well  received.  The  French  treated  the  envoys  with 
great  courtesy,  and  a  ball  was  given  in  their  honour  at  Fon- 
tainebleau, after  which  discussions  were  held.  The  Germans 
explained  that  they  had  been  sent  by  the  States  of  the  Holy 
Roman  Empire,  to  solicit  the  alliance  of  the  King  of  France. 
They  had  been  outraged  by  the  behaviour  of  the  Emperor,  who 
was  threatening  all  the  rights,  privileges,  and  statutes  of  Ger- 
many. The  Free  Towns  of  the  Empire  more  especially  found 
136 


EXTERNAL    PEACE.      HENRY    II 

themselves  menaced.  They  were  too  weak  to  resist,  and  in- 
capable of  offering  any  opposition  to  the  designs  of  Charles  V, 
who  merely  laid  hands  on  their  territories  and  added  them  to 
his  own  domains.  Three  towns,  Metz,  Toul,  and  Verdun,  which 
were  in  close  proximity  to  the  French  frontier,  were  at  that 
very  moment  the  objects  of  the  Emperor's  designs.  If  Henry  II 
would  consent  to  give  his  support  to  the  German  princes,  the 
latter  saw  no  reason  why  the  King  of  France  should  not  tem- 
porarily occupy  the  three  towns  in  question,  in  order  to  protect 
them  from  the  Emperor's  ambition. 

Henry  II  admitted  to  his  council  that  he  was  very  much 
tempted  by  the  oiTer  of  the  three  French  towns  ;  that  he  did 
not  intend  to  occupy  them  merely  temporarily,  but  "to  turn 
them  into  a  pretext  for  the  extension  of  the  boundaries  of  his 
kingdom."  This,  however,  would  mean  immediate  war. 
Francis  of  Guise  supported  the  proposal  hotly.  An  excellent 
soldier,  skilful  and  vigorous,  he  was  all  eagerness  for  the  cam- 
paign. Anne  de  Montmorency  would  have  preferred  waiting  a 
little  longer.  But  in  either  case  a  favourable  reply  was  the 
only  answer  that  could  be  given  to  the  Germans,  and  a  treaty 
drawn  up  in  due  form  and  order  was  at  all  events  necessary. 
The  German  princes  gave  their  consent  to  the  treaty,  and,  after 
some  discussions,  Maurice  of  Saxony  signed  in  their  name  the 
secret  convention  of  Friedwald  with  Henry  II  in  October,  1551. 
By  the  terms  of  this  convention  the  King  of  France  was  to 
receive  the  title  of  "  Vicar  of  the  Empire  "  in  the  four  imperial 
towns  of  Metz,  Toul,  Verdun,  and  Cambray.  The  Germans  thus 
obviated  the  difficulty  of  abandoning  certain  of  their  towns  to 
a  foreigner,  by  making  that  foreigner  enter  the  imperial  sys- 
tem. In  return  for  this  the  King,  in  addition  to  giving  them 
armed  support,  promised  the  princes  an  immediate  subsidy  of 
240,000  gold  crowns  and,  prospectively,  regular  monthly  pay- 
ments of  60,000  crowns. 

It  only  remained  to  begin  operations.  In  February,  1552, 
Henry  II  made  up  his  mind.  In  a  public  manifesto  he  declared 
Conquest  of  ^^^^  against  the  Emperor,  and  confiding  the 
the  three  Regency  to  Catherine  de'  Medici,  he  set  out  for 

Bishoprics,  Chalons,  where  an  army  of  40,000  men  had  been 
^^°^'  collected  under  the  command  of  Francis  of  Guise 

and  Montmorency's  nephew,  Gaspard  de  Coligny.     The  nobility 

137 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

of  France  hastened  to  join  the  standards,  and  the  troops  were 
full  of  enthusiasm,  for  it  seemed  clear  that  in  marching  east- 
wards to  the  conquest  of  French  territory  in  the  direction  of 
the  Rhine,  a  route  had  once  more  been  discovered  which  would 
lead  to  really  useful  achievements.  As  a  matter  of  fact 
Henry  II  and  Francis  of  Guise  were  nursing  rather  more  exten- 
sive plans  than  those  proper  to  a  mere  Imperial  Vicar  in  three 
or  four  towns.  Pont-a-Mousson  was  occupied  without  striking 
a  blow  ;  Toul  delivered  up  its  keys,  and  Nancy  threw  open  its 
gates.  At  Metz  an  escort  managed  to  make  an  entry  under 
some  pretext  and  seizing  the  drawbridges,  let  in  the  rest  of 
the  troops.  The  behaviour  of  the  King  of  France  gave  rise  to 
some  anxiety.  Until  that  moment  the  French  army  had 
pushed  forward  boasting,  in  the  words  of  Tavannes,  that  "  it 
was  marching  for  the  liberty  of  Germany,"  and  the  towns,  held 
in  awe  by  fear  of  the  Emperor,  had  hailed  the  deliverers  with 
joy.  But  now,  instead  of  halting  or  returning  in  the  direction 
of  Verdun,  Henry  II  was  continuing  his  onward  march  and 
penetrating  into  German-speaking  territories,  and  it  was 
asserted  that  he  meant  to  let  his  horses  drink  the  waters  of  the 
Rhine.  lis  reception  became  colder.  He  succeeded  in  making 
an  entry  into  Hagenau  and  Weissenburg,  but  Strasburg  closed 
its  gates  in  his  face  and  swore  that  not  a  single  French  pikeman 
should  be  allowed  to  enter.  At  Spires,  the  citizens  informed 
Henry  that  they  were  quite  willing  to  receive  him,  but  that 
he  must  come  into  the  town  alone  without  the  shadow  of 
an  escort.  Public  opinion  was  alarmed,  and  foresaw  the 
possibility  of  the  King  of  France  over-running  the  country  as 
far  as  the  Rhine.  Disquieting  intentions  were  attributed  to 
him,  as,  for  instance,  that  he  would  maintain  that  these  regions 
had  once  formed  part  of  France,  including  the  whole  of  Alsace  ; 
Austrasia  was  a  name  given  to  a  fairly  wide  dominion  which 
extended  a  long  way  north.  Everywhere  the  town  walls 
bristled  with  arms,  and  it  was  becoming  difficult  to  advance 
without  turning  a  hitherto  peaceful  progress  into  a  bloody 
march.  The  German  princes  were  grumbling.  Henry  II 
became  anxious,  and  judged  it  wiser,  for  the  moment,  at  all 
events,  not  to  proceed  any  farther,  lest  he  should  compromise  the 
results  he  had  already  obtained.  He  turned  back — a  course 
138 


EXTERNAL    PEACE.      HENRY    II 

prompted  by  the  profoundest  wisdom.  One  of  his  regiments 
occupied  Verdun,  and  excited  by  the  ease  of  the  conquest  and 
occupation  of  territories  which  it  seemed  so  natural  should 
return  to  the  possession  of  France,  the  troops  began  to  murmur 
at  what  they  called  the  King's  weakness. 

Meanwhile  in  Germany  matters  had  come  to  a  head.  Sud- 
denly attacked  by  the  princes,  Charles  V,  taken  by  surprise. 
Treaty  of  was   hustled   and   hunted   down   by   Maurice   of 

Passau,  1552.  Saxony,  who  followed  him  in  hot  pursuit.  He 
fled  to  Innsbruck,  with  Maurice  close  on  his  heels,  and  was 
obliged  to  escape  on  a  mule  in  great  haste,  almost  alone, 
across  the  Tyrol,  and  seek  refuge  in  Carinthia.  His  brother 
Ferdinand,  who  was  forced  to  sign  the  Treaty  of  Passau  in  his 
name,  on  August  2,  1552,  granted  all  the  demands  of  the 
German  princes — the  confirmation  of  the  German  constitution, 
that  is  to  say  of  the  Golden  Bull,  and  permission  for  the  Pro- 
testants to  practise  their  religion  without  let  or  hindrance. 
The  German  princes,  who  were  now  satisfied,  felt  that  they 
had  no  further  need  of  the  alliance  with  Henry  II,  whose 
conduct  irritated  them  ;  and  Charles  V,  consequently,  found 
himself  at  liberty  to  turn  with  all  the  forces  at  his  command 
against  the  King  of  France,  with  the  object  of  recapturing 
the  towns  which  the  "  Imperial  Vicar  "  had  thought  fit  to 
appropriate.  Moreover,  the  princes  now  joined  him,  and  in 
September,  1552,  80,000  Germans  marched  against  Metz  to 
drive  out  the  French  troops. 

Francis  of  Guise  had  been  the  heart  and  soul  of  the  French 
conquests,  and  it  was  Francis  of  Guise  whom  the  King  appointed 
Charles  V  to  march  to  the  defence  of  Metz  against  the  blow 

besieges  Metz.  that  was  about  to  fall.  He  was  given  the  title  of 
the  King's  Lieutenant -General  in  the  three  bishoprics.  The 
affray  looked  as  though  it  would  reach  important  dimensions. 
Crowds  of  the  nobility  and  of  the  best  families  in  France  flocked, 
full  of  zeal  and  ardour,  to  join  the  army  :  the  Prince  of  Conde, 
the  Due  d'Enghien,  the  Duke  of  Aumale,  the  Prince  of  Roche- 
sur-Yon,  Monsieur  de  Nemours,  the  Marquis  of  Elbcuf,  and  the 
Vidame  de  Chartres.  And  indeed  the  defence  of  Metz  proved 
one  of  the  great  feats  of  arms  of  the  century.  But,  above  all, 
it  rooted  firmly  in  the  popular  imagination  the  warlike  renown 

139 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

of  the  skilful  and  energetic  general  in  command  of  the  place, 
and  brought  into  marvellous  relief  his  active  qualities  of  vigour 
and  intelligence. 

With  the  help  of  his  engineers,  Piero  Strozzi  and  Marini, 
Guise  immediately  repaired  the  tottering  walls  of  the  town.  He 
made  entrenchments,  put  up  supports,  and  pulled  down  houses 
and  whole  suburbs  in  order  to  clear  the  outskirts.  From 
morning  to  night  he  was  in  the  work-yards  encouraging  the 
soldiers  by  word  and  deed.  It  is  even  said  that  he  himself  and 
his  officers  used  to  help  carry  the  hods.  Owing  to  his  fore- 
thought, provisions  in  large  quantities  were  stored.  There  was 
plenty  of  ammunition,  and  he  had  powder  magazines  installed, 
and  organized  in  advance  the  hospitals  in  which  the  illustrious 
Ambroise  Pare,  who  has  left  us  a  stirring  account  of  the  siege, 
was  to  win  such  great  distinction.  He  laid  cannon,  even 
placing  them  on  the  church  steeples  by  means  of  platforms. 
Not  content  with  the  forces  he  had  brought  with  him,  he 
enrolled  the  able-bodied  men  of  the  district,  divided  them  into 
twelve  ensigns  or  companies  of  infantry,  and  had  them  in- 
structed and  trained  under  severe  discipline.  He  divided 
the  defence  of  the  town  up  into  sections,  at  the  head  of 
each  of  which  he  placed  a  responsible  officer,  and  distributed 
his  troops  skilfully,  declaring  that  he  could  hold  out  for  ten 
months. 

On  September  15,  Charles  V  set  forth  in  person  at  the 
head  of  his  army,  which  was  under  the  command  of  the  Marquis 
of  Marignano  and  the  Duke  of  Alba.  He  crossed  the  Rhine, 
and  on  October  19  laid  siege  to  Metz.  The  Imperial  troops, 
amply  supplied  with  provisions  of  every  kind,  placed  114 
cannon  in  line.  Guise  made  a  few  sorties  in  order  to  get  a 
change  of  air,  and  in  one  of  these  his  brother  dAumale  was 
taken  prisoner.  The  Fmperor  had  divided  his  army  into  three 
camps,  and  had  encompassed  the  town  completely.  On 
November  26  the  bombardment  was  begun  ;  the  trenches  had 
already  been  opened.  The  besieged  defended  themselves 
vigorously.  The  Duke  of  Guise,  who  never  left  the  ramparts, 
gave  orders  to  all  with  perfect  clearness  and  self-possession, 
having  the  breaches  filled  as  soon  as  they  were  made,  the  walls 
rebuilt  and  the  platforms  repaired.  For  a  whole  month  the 
140 


EXTERNAL    PEACE.     HENRY    II 

bombardment  was  kept  up.  The  imperial  army  used  over 
15,000  cannon  balls,  but  thanks  to  the  tenacity  of  the  defenders 
the  shots  proved  futile.  The  approach  by  way  of  the  trenches 
had  been  no  more  successful.  Meanwhile  the  winter  was 
making  itself  felt  with  cold  bleak  weather  ;  there  were  falls  of 
snow  and  sharp  frosts  made  the  ground  as  hard  as  iron.  The 
besieging  army,  insufficiently  provided  wdth  shelter,  was  exposed 
to  terrible  sufferings.  Some  of  the  soldiers  fell  in  the  trenches 
never  to  rise  again  ;  the  rest  dragged  themselves  along  numbed 
with  cold,  shivering,  with  their  feet  in  the  frozen  mud.  Epi- 
demics broke  out ;  the  losses  of  the  imperial  army  became  a 
hecatomb.  It  was  said  that  20,000  or  30,000  men  had  died 
and  the  rest  wished  to  take  to  flight.  Charles  V  realized  that 
Retreat  of  his  cause  was  hopeless,  and  on  December  26, 
Charles  V.  after  a  bombardment  of  thirty  days,   forty-five 

days  entrenchment,  and  sixty-eight  days  siege,  he  gave  the 
signal  for  departure.  Bertrand  de  Salignac,  who  has  left  us  an 
account  of  the  siege,  describes  the  terrible  shock  the  defenders 
of  Metz  received  on  visiting  the  deserted  camp.  In  the  midst 
of  miserable  accumulations  of  rubbish  of  all  kinds  they  found 
the  dead  and  the  dying,  half-frozen  soldiers  and  others  lying  ill 
in  the  mud  and  the  filth.  Guise  had  all  who  could  be  moved 
carried  into  the  hospitals,  where  Pare  amputated  the  limbs  of  a 
good  many.  And  the  fame  of  the  Duke  of  Guise  rang  through 
the  length  and  breadth  of  France. 

Three  months  later  (in  April,  1553)  Charles  V,  determined 
as  ever,  in  spite  of  a  painful  attack  of  gout  which  racked  him 
from  head  to  foot,  dispatched  to  the  northern  frontier  a  fresh 
army,  which  invaded  Picardy  and  captured  Hesdin  and 
Therouanne.  On  hearing  the  news  that  the  latter  town  had 
fallen  into  his  hands,  the  Emperor  gave  orders  for  it  to  be  razed 
to  the  ground.  Its  destruction  caused  universal  mourning. 
The  French  armies  did  not  march  until  July,  and  Montmorency 
was  bitterly  reproached  for  the  delay.  He  was  always  in 
favour  of  peace  and  hoped  that  it  would  be  secured,  with  the 
result  that  he  was  never  ready  at  the  right  time.  And  owing 
to  his  excess  of  caution  the  army  of  40,000  under  his  command 
did  not  accomplish  much,  but  merely  kept  watch  and  ward 
over  the  country. 

141 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

Hostilities  were  renewed  in  1554.  The  imperial  army, 
attacked  in  the  direction  of  Hainault  by  Antoine  de  Bourbon 
Battle  o£  and    Marshal  de  Saint-Andre,  at  first  fell  back, 

Renty,  1554.  but  it  took  the  offensive  once  more  under  the 
command  of  the  young  and  distinguished  Duke  of  Savoy, 
Emmanuel  Philibert,  who  pushed  the  French  towards  the 
Boulogne  district,  and  forced  them  to  fight  at  Renty  near  Saint- 
Omer.  Charles  V  was  present  at  the  battle,  carried  about  in  a 
litter  on  account  of  his  gout.  Duke  Francis  of  Guise,  who  was 
in  the  front  ranks,  had  to  meet  the  shock.  With  a  vigorous 
onslaught  he  charged  the  enemy,  and  breaking  their  lines, 
succeeded  in  capturing  seventeen  ensigns,  five  standards,  and  four 
cannon.  Unfortunately,  Montmorency,  who  was  in  command 
of  the  main  body,  considered  it  more  prudent  not  to  support  him, 
and,  as  the  Imperialists  held  their  ground,  the  engagement 
seemed  indecisive  ;  finally  the  French  beat  a  retreat.  But 
the  brilliant  conduct  of  Guise  added  to  his  popularity.  The 
following  month,  everything  dragged,  as  the  opposing  armies 
found  it  impossible  to  accomplish  anything.  Charles  V  had 
retired  to  Brussels. 

All  at  once  the  unexpected  news  was  noised  abroad  that  he 
was  going  to  abdicate  !  Endless  conjectures  have  been  made 
Abdication  of  as  to  the  reasons  which  drove  the  powerful 
Charles  V.  Emperor  to   descend   from  the  throne,    he,   the 

master  of  Europe  and  the  ruler  of  dominions  so  vast  that  since 
the  days  of  Charlemagne  no  monarch  had  been  so  formidable, 
he,  the  despotic,  cold,  and  determined  character  that  history 
depicts !  Discouragement  at  his  want  of  success  has  been  urged 
as  a  cause.  "Fortune  is  a  woman,"  he. said,  "she  does  not 
love  old  men  !  "  It  has  been  asserted  that  he  was  weary  of  the 
terrible  complications  of  a  government  which  had  to  fight  in 
Germany,  fight  on  the  frontiers,  and  enter  into  discussions  and 
conflicts  everywhere.  His  religious  feelings  have  also  been  held 
responsible,  and  the  need  he  felt  for  retiring  into  a  cloister  to 
end  his  days  in  silence  and  repentance.  There  is  some  truth  in  all 
these  explanations,  although  the  self-reliant  and  self-possessed 
character  of  Charles  V  must  make  us  accept  his  alleged  dis- 
couragement with  some  reserve.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  his  body 
was  crippled  by  suffering,  and  it  was  impossible  for  him  to 
142 


EXTERNAL    PEACE.      HENRY    II 

attend  to  affairs  of  state.  Gout  had  cramped  all  his  limbs  and 
shaken  him  by  constant  severe  pain.  "  I  suffer  so  terribly," 
he  confessed  to  the  Venetian  ambassador,  "  that  I  am  sometimes 
forced  to  bite  my  hand  and  pray  for  death  !  "  One  day  when 
Coligny  brought  him  a  letter  from  Henry  II  he  could  scarcely 
open  it,  owing  to  the  stiffness  of  his  fingers.  "  Am  I  not  a 
brave  knight,"  he  remarked  sadly  to  his  visitor,  "to  rush  out 
and  break  a  lance  when  I  can  only  open  a  letter  with  the  very 
greatest  difficulty  !  "  The  disease  had  aged  him  terribly. 
Although  he  was  only  fifty-three,  he  was  worn  out,  white- 
haired,  pale,  and  wrinkled.  He  sat  huddled  up  in  a  chair 
covered  with  black  cloth  in  a  room  which  some  morbid  whim 
had  made  him  have  draped  entirely  with  black.  He  could  bear 
no  more.  The  idea  of  abdicating  had  been  in  his  mind  for 
some  time  before  he  carried  it  into  execution  ;  he  had  long 
considered  the  advisability  of  such  a  course.  He  would  have 
liked  to  hand  over  to  his  son,  the  future  Philip  II  of  Spain,  who 
was  twenty-eight  at  the  time,  the  whole  of  his  power,  including 
the  Empire.  But  the  German  princes  refused  to  be  ruled  any 
longer  by  a  Spaniard  who  had  other  things  besides  their  welfare 
to  consider.  The  Protestants,  moreover,  had  no  liking  for  a 
Catholic  prince  whom  they  had  every  reason  to  consider  dan- 
gerous. At  the  very  first  overtures  that  were  made  they  refused  to 
accept  Philip  as  Emperor.  After  cruel  deliberations  with  him- 
self Charles  V  decided  to  leave  the  Crown  of  the  Holy  Roman 
Empire  to  his  brother,  Ferdinand,  and  keep  the  rest  of  his 
possessions  for  his  son.  He  handed  them  over  to  him  one  by 
one,  as  though  he  did  so  tentatively  with  regret,  reserving  to 
himself  the  position  of  a  supreme  master,  who  could  come  to  a 
decision  at  the  last  moment  and  go  back  upon  his  deeds.  He 
passed  on  to  him  one  after  the  other  the  government  of  Milan, 
Naples,  the  Netherlands,  and  last  of  all  of  Spain.  The  final  scene 
of  the  abdication  took  place  on  October  23,  1555,  at  Brussels 
in  the  presence  of  a  vast  concourse  of  nobles,  courtiers,  and  the 
representatives  of  the  various  states  of  the  Netherlands.  It 
presented  a  spectacle  that  was  impressive  in  its  grandiose 
solemnity — the  shrunken  old  man,  looking  ghastly  white  in  his 
black  dress,  with  features  distorted  by  suffering,  pronouncing 
from  an  armchair  raised  aloft  under  a  canopy,  the  few  short 

143 


CENTURY    OF   THE    RENAISSANCE 

words  which  were  to  transform  him  from  Emperor  of  the  Holy 
Roman  Empire,  King  of  the  Spanish  dominions,  obeyed  and 
held  in  awe  by  the  whole  of  Europe,  with  a  name  known  and 
respected  throughout  the  world,  into  an  ordinary  private 
citizen,  shortly  to  become  a  sort  of  monk.  He  spoke  very 
slowly,  declaring  that  the  state  of  his  health  made  it  impossible 
for  him  to  continue  in  the  exercise  of  power,  and  that  he  trans- 
mitted this  power  to  his  son,  whom  he  commended  to  them  all. 
Philip  of  Spain  was  kneeling  before  him.  He  laid  his  hand  on 
his  head,  and  in  a  voice  that  shook  said :  "  My  beloved  son,  I 
give  you  absolute  possession  of  all  my  heritage  and  commend 
to  you  the  service  of  God  and  justice."  He  then  gave  him 
his  blessing.  His  emotion  was  so  great  that,  according  to 
Fran9ois  de  Rabutin  great  tears  "  coursed  down  his  pale  and 
withered  cheeks  and  dropped  upon  his  white  beard."  He  then 
rose,  and  begging  Philip  to  take  the  seat  he  had  left,  he  descended 
two  steps  and  listened  to  the  new  sovereign,  who  returned  a 
few  words  of  thanks  in  accents  as  broken  as  his  own.  The 
proceedings  were  brought  to  a  conclusion  by  the  administration 
of  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  nobles  who  were  present. 
Charles  V  went  into  retirement  in  Spain,  in  the  monastery  of 
San  Yuste  in  Estramadura,  where  he  died  two  years  later. 

When  Charles  V  disappeared  from  the  political  stage  it 
became  easier  for  France,  which  had  hailed  his  abdication  with 
Truce  of  unconcealed  joy,  to  accept  a  cessation  of  hos- 

Vaucelles,  1556.  tilities.  Henry  II  had  always  expressed  his 
esteem  for  Ferdinand,  "  speaking  with  respect  of  his  rare  virtues 
and  the  goodness  of  his  character,"  and  he  had  no  feeling  of 
animosity  for  Philip  II.  In  default  of  peace,  the  details  of 
which  it  was  too  difficult  to  arrange  in  haste,  a  truce  for  five 
years  was  signed  on  February  5,  1556,  at  Vaucelles,  near 
Cambray,  on  the  basis  of  the  statu  quo  for  both  sides.  This 
provided  a  respite.  The  nation  was  tired  out,  and  the  pre- 
carious condition  of  the  exchequer  made  a  period  of  rest  impera- 
tive. But,  as  the  word  implied,  it  was  nothing  more  than  a 
truce.  From  the  moment  when,  during  the  first  discussions,  it 
had  been  realized  that  it  was  impossible  to  come  to  an  under- 
standing with  regard  to  a  definite  peace,  the  vista  of  fresh 
campaigns  to  be  undertaken  at  some  future  date  remained 
144 


EXTERNAL    PEACE.      HENRY    II 

open.  By  striking  the  enemy  in  his  weakest  spots  France 
would  certainly  succeed  in  finally  forcing  him  to  the  desired 
end.     But  for  the  time  being  it  was  necessary  to  wait. 

Francis  of  Guise,  however,  whether  urged  by  impatience  to 
fight,  or  spurred  by  ambition,  or  for  some  other  obscure  reason. 
Guise's  unearthed  the  rights  which  he  inherited  from  his 

expedition  ancestress  Renee  of  Anjou  over  the  kingdom  of 

to  Italy.  Naples,  and  asked  leave  to  go  and  conquer  his 

Italian  possessions.  Were  the  chimerical  expeditions  of  former 
years  once  more  to  be  repeated  ?  Montmorency  offered  a 
lively  opposition  to  the  project,  and  urged  the  necessity  of 
reserving  the  strength  of  the  nation  for  the  approaching  conflict 
with  Spain,  and  of  consolidating  the  frontiers  of  France  whilst 
scrupulously  observing  the  truce.  But  backed  by  Diane  de 
Poitiers,  who  already  saw  her  son-in-law,  d'Aumale,  the  brother 
of  a  King,  and  also  by  all  the  young  nobility  who  were  consumed 
by  the  desire  of  following  the  lucky  Duke  Francis  to  fresh 
victories,  the  Guises  ended  by  having  their  way.  They  were, 
however,  only  given  13,000  men.  As  early  as  1554,  the  King 
had  already  lent  a  gracious  ear  to  the  overtures  of  Monsieur 
de  Termes  and  some  cardinals  in  Tuscany,  who  wished  to  bring 
about  the  revolt  of  certain  towns  against  the  imperial  sway. 
Amongst  others,  Siena  had  taken  up  arms,  driven  out  the 
Spanish  garrison,  and  prevailed  upon  the  King  of  France  to 
send  a  force  to  defend  her  in  case  of  attack.  Strozzi  had  been 
dispatched  with  Monluc  and  some  troops.  The  town  had  been 
besieged,  and  Monluc  had  defended  it  valiantly  during  a 
memorable  siege  made  famous  by  his  descriptions  of  it,  which 
are  not  free  from  a'  certain  Gascon  exaggeration.  But  in 
the  end  Siena  capitulated.  Guise  accordingly  set  forth.  He 
manoeuvred  cleverly,  anxious,  above  all,  not  to  allow  any  en- 
croachment to  be  made  upon  his  slender  forces,  when  suddenly  a 
messenger  arrived  bringing  him  the  news  that  the  King  of  France 
had  suffered  a  terrible  disaster  at  Saint- Quentin,  and  recalled 
him  immediately.     What  was  the  disaster  that  had  occurred  ? 

The  expedition  against  the  Kingdom  of  Naples  had  made  a 
conflict  with  Spain  inevitable,  and  war  had  been  declared  on 
January  1,  1557.  The  government  of  Philip  II,  determined  to 
see  the  matter  through  vigorously,  had  collected  an  army  of 

K  145 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

50,000,  to  which  Queen  Mary  of  England,  as  an  ally  of  Spain* 
had  added  a  contingent  of  6000  men,  the  whole  under  the 
command  of  the  clever  and  active  Duke  of  Savoy,  Emmanuel 
Philibert.  This  army  crossed  the  frontier  and  came  and  laid 
siege  to  Givet.  Montmorency  was  bitterly  reproached  for  his 
weakness  and  indecision.  Perpetually  clinging  to  the  hope 
that  hostilities  would  not  be  pushed  to  extremes,  and  that  he 
could  go  on  temporizing  whilst  seeming  to  keep  the  peace,  he 
had  not  collected  a  sufficient  body  of  troops — barely  26,000 
men — and  he  continued  to  maintain  an  attitude  of  prudent 
circumspection.  Public  opinion  grew  impatient ;  he  was 
accused  of  being  a  "  pusillanimous  creature  and  a  coward 
devoid  of  spirit,"  and  satiric  sonnets  were  circulated  at  his 
expense.  The  imperial  army,  gaining  courage,  then  made  a 
Disaster  of  vigorous  advance  and  laid  siege  to  Saint-Quentin. 
Saint-Quentin,  This  time  the  position  of  affairs  was  extremely 
1557.  grave,  for  if  Saint-Quentin  fell,  the  road  to  Paris 

would  lie  open.  The  Parisians  were  in  a  state  of  utter  dismay. 
Coligny  threw  himself  into  Saint-Quentin  with  700  men,  an 
absolutely  insufficient  force  ;  he  had  neither  the  provisions  nor 
the  ammunition  he  needed.  Montmorency  made  a  rapid 
advance  in  order  to  try,  if  there  were  yet  time,  to  introduce  into 
the  town  the  reinforcements  and  provisions  which  d'Andelot, 
Coligny's  brother,  was  bringing.  With  an  imprudence  incom- 
prehensible in  a  man  like  Montmorency,  who  was  generally  so 
timorous,  the  Constable  had  the  temerity  to  advance  almost  on 
to  the  enemy's  lines,  and  swerved  from  his  course  towards  the 
marshes  which  bordered  one  side  of  the  town,  in  order  to  allow 
his  troops  to  advance  by  night  in  boats.  The  boats  stuck  in 
the  mud  and  the  whole  manoeuvre  was  a  failure.  Thereupon 
Emmanuel  Philibert,  profiting  by  the  false  position  in  which 
the  Constable  found  himself,  thus  isolated  and  with  an  inferior 
force,  opened  an  attack.  A  clever  general  would  have  en- 
deavoured to  fall  back  in  good  order,  covering  his  retreat  by  a 
series  of  squadrons  on  the  defensive  to  protect  it,  arranged  in 
echelons  in  favourable  positions.  But  Montmorency  gave 
hurried  orders  to  retreat  in  columns,  as  though  he  had  no  enemy 
at  his  heels.  Count  Egmont  collected  all  the  Spanish  cavalry, 
and  charging  the  French  rearguard  vigorously,  broke  its  lines. 
146 


EXTERNAL   PEACE.     HENRY   II 

The  Constable  tried  to  form  the  main  body  of  his  army  into 
squares,  but  the  imperial  forces,  galloping  headlong  upon  him 
supported  by  all  their  artillery,  charged  him  en  masse,  and  in 
four  or  five  hours  he  was  overwhelmed.  In  the  end  the  French 
army  was  utterly  destroyed.  The  Comte  d'Enghien,  brother  of 
Antoine  de  Bourbon,  King  of  Navarre,  had  fallen,  together  with 
a  whole  host  of  nobles  and  soldiers.  Montmorency  had  been 
wounded  and  taken  prisoner  as  well  as  Marshal  de  Saint- Andre, 
Longueville  and  Montpensier,  whilst  the  whole  of  the  artillery, 
baggage,  and  supplies,  and  eighty  standards  had  been  captured. 
Monsieur  de  Nevers,  who  gathered  together  the  fugitives  some 
distance  away,  was  able  to  collect  barely  a  thousand  men-at- 
arms  and  a  thousand  cavalry.  No  such  disaster  had  occurred 
since  the  battle  of  Pavia. 

In  France  there  was  universal  consternation.  As  the  King 
no  longer  had  an  army  to  defend  his  country,  the  enemy  had 
only  to  march  straight  on  Paris,  for  they  could  meet  with  no 
opposition  on  the  way.  And  indeed  Emmanuel  Philibert 
advised  Philip  II,  who  had  hastened  to  the  spot,  to  turn  the 
triumph  of  his  arms  to  immediate  account  by  marching  forward. 
But  upon  reflection  Philip  II  deemed  it  a  necessary  preliminary 
to  seize  the  places  on  the  route  "  in  order  to  have  the  road 
behind  him  more  open  and  secure  for  further  advances  and 
encroachments,"  says  Fran9ois  de  Rabutin.  The  siege  of  Saint- 
Quentin  was  accordingly  pushed  on  vigorously.  On  August  27 
the  assault  was  made  under  the  command  of  the  Duke  of  Savoy. 
The  town  was  captured,  pillaged,  burnt,  and  sacked  ;  Coligny 
was  taken  prisoner  and  sent  to  the  Netherlands.  Philip  II 
then  advanced  towards  Noyon. 

When  at  last  the  news  was  received  in  France  that  Francis 
of  Guise,  summoned  back  from  Italy  and  returning  in  hot  haste. 
Return  of  had   just   landed   at   Marseilles,    a   sigh  of  relief 

Guise.  spread  through  the  whole  country.     "  Joy  was 

everywhere  aroused  at  the  sound  of  his  name,"  says  Brantome, 
"  and  in  all  places  the  people  with  one  voice  exclaimed  :  '  Now 
will  this  man  with  one  touch  set  everything  right  and  restore 
all  that  has  been  twisted  and  turned  awry.'  " 

Henry  II  did  not  wait  for  Guise  to  return  in  order  to  take 
the  steps  demanded  by  the  state  of  affairs.     He  acted  with 

147 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

great  manliness.  Deprived  though  he  was  of  his  usual  coun- 
sellors, he  proved  that  he  was  a  person  of  will  and  initiative. 
Owing  to  his  efforts,  troops  were  collected  from  every  quarter 
and  directed  towards  the  places  that  were  threatened.  The 
towns  of  Picardy  were  fortified  with  men  and  ammunition.  At 
his  earnest  request  Catherine  de'  Medici  attended  the  council  of 
the  City  of  Paris  and  asked  for  300,000  pounds,  which  were  granted. 
On  all  sides  the  nobility  took  up  arms  at  the  call  of  their 
King.  The  towns,  vying  with  each  other  in  zeal,  put  themselves 
in  a  state  of  defence  and  also  sent  help.  There  was  a  sort  of 
universal  outburst  of  popular  enthusiasm,  so  that  when  at  last 
Henry  II  was  advised  to  leave  Paris  and  seek  refuge  beyond  the 
Loire,  he  refused.  "  It  only  remains  to  be  of  good  courage  and  to 
be  surprised  at  nothing,"  he  wrote  bravely  to  Francis  of  Guise. 

And  indeed  the  Duke  of  Guise  was  the  only  man  upon 
whom  the  King  and  country  could  rely  to  repair  such  a  disaster. 
In  order  to  confer  full  authority  upon  him  he  was  made 
"  Lieutenant-General-in-Chief  in  the  interior  and  beyond  the 
borders  of  the  realm,"  an  exceptional  rank  which  conferred 
upon  him  the  same  authority  as  that  enjoyed  by  the  Constable, 
who  was  then  a  prisoner  in  the  hands  of  the  enemy.  He  took 
over  the  command  of  the  small  army  which  Henry  II  had  just 
collected  at  Compiegne. 

This  one  movement  immediately  produced  an  unexpected 
result.  After  the  capture  of  Saint-Quentin  and  the  march 
against  Noyon,  Philip  II's  army  had  begun  to  melt  away.  The 
English,  who  were  tired  of  the  business,  had  fallen  off,  and 
mutinies  had  broken  out.  On  receiving  the  news  of  the  arrival 
of  a  general  of  the  Duke  of  Guise's  determination,  Philip  II,  who 
had  only  an  uncertain  quantity  at  his  back,  came  to  the  conclu- 
sion that  a  march  upon  Paris  was  out  of  the  question.  It  would 
be  better  to  end  the  campaign  before  the  favourable  impression 
produced  by  his  recent  successes  had  passed  away.  In  October 
he  accordingly  beat  a  sudden  retreat  and  returned  to  Brussels. 

What  was  Francis  of  Guise  to  do  with  his  impatient  army 
all  eager  for  the  fray  ?  Public  opinion  demanded  that  some 
Guise  seizes  effort  should  be  made  after  the  general  impetus 
Calais,  1558.  given  by  the  whole  nation.  The  popularity  of 
the  young  hero  was  at  stake,  and  he  then  conceived  the  bold 
148 


EXTERNAL    PEACE.     HENRY    II 

design  of  swooping  down  upon  Calais.  This  port  was  an 
English  town  which  had  been  captured  by  Edward  III  two 
hundred  and  ten  years  previously,  in  1347,  and  was  now  so 
English  that  it  seemed  incredible  that  it  could  ever  be  French 
again.  Guise,  however,  determined  to  take  it  by  surprise  as  it 
lay  unarmed  for  the  winter  behind  the  surrounding  marshes, 
and  capture  it.  No  one  ever  dreamed  of  such  a  possibility, 
least  of  all  the  English,  who  were  fully  persuaded  that  Calais 
was  impregnable  behind  its  belt  of  wide  marshland,  its  deep 
moats  through  which  ran  a  river,  and  its  lofty  walls.  Lord 
Went  worth,  its  Governor,  had  sent  home  part  of  his  garrison. 
He  had  indeed  heard  rumours  that  M.  de  Senarpont,  the 
Governor  of  Boulogne,  was  nursing  some  vague  scheme  for 
taking  the  town  by  surprise,  but  the  idea  was  so  absurd  that  he 
had  given  it  no  further  thought. 

The  engineer  Strozzi  was  sent  in  disguise  to  make  an  exami- 
nation of  the  ramparts,  whilst  Guise  had  boats  collected  with 
the  profoundest  secrecy  all  along  the  coast.  Thereupon,  when 
everything  was  ready,  after  a  feint  in  another  direction,  on 
December  31,  in  bitterly  cold  weather,  he  made  a  rush  for 
Calais.  Fortified  outposts  guarded  the  road  across  the  marsh. 
He  bombarded  them  vigorously,  took  them  by  surprise,  and 
then  turning  towards  the  sea,  he  attacked  the  fortress  which 
commanded  the  port.  The  garrison  was  stunned  with  astonish- 
ment, and  a  fierce  fusillade  soon  got  the  better  of  it.  After 
this  Guise  directed  his  efforts  against  the  castle.  He  placed 
his  batteries  on  the  beach  and  bombarded  the  citadel  at  low 
tide,  covering  up  his  guns  when  the  water  rose.  As  soon  as  a 
breach  was  made,  dAumale  made  a  vigorous  assault.  The 
castle  was  taken  and  the  town  capitulated.  The  English 
garrison  consisted  of  500  men  only,  but  there  was  ammunition 
in  quantities,  huge  magazines  and  300  cannon. 

The  news  was  received  with  stupefaction  !  The  capture 
with  such  marvellous  speed  of  one  of  the  most  impregnable 
strongholds  of  Europe  was  "  one  of  the  miracles  and  most 
astounding  feats  of  the  century  "  !  Franyois  de  Rabutin  wrote 
that  it  was  the  work,  not  of  men  but  of  God  :  "  The  deeds  of 
the  Almighty,"  he  said,  "  surpass  all  the  powers  and  proposals 
of  men  however  great  they  may  be  !  "     Bonfires  were  lighted 

149 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

all  over  the  country,  and  Henry  II  hastened  to  visit  his  new 
township.  He  ordered  the  English  who  had  taken  up  their 
abode  in  Calais  to  be  driven  out,  forcing  them  to  sell  their 
houses,  and  completed  the  seizure  of  what  was  known  as  the 
•'  reconquered  territory  "  by  taking  Guines  and  Ham.  When 
he  returned  to  Paris  with  Guise  at  his  side,  the  welcome  he  was 
given  by  the  people  was  enthusiastic  in  the  extreme.  He  was 
greeted  with  delirious  acclamations  of  joy.  His  lucky  general 
enjoyed  unparalleled  popularity,  and  the  monarchy  was  still 
strong  enough  to  bear  this  with  equanimity.  For  the  English, 
the  blow  was  one  of  the  most  terrible  they  had  ever  received, 
and  Queen  Mary  declared  that  if  her  heart  were  opened  the 
name  of  Calais  would  be  found  graven  upon  it,  so  inconsolable 
was  she  at  the  loss  of  this  stronghold. 

In  the  following  year,  1558,  owing  to  hesitation  on  the  part 
of  Philip  II  and  a  desire  to  make  peace  on  that  of  Henry  II, 
hostilities  dragged  on.  Guise  had  managed  to  raise  an  army 
of  50,000  to  60,000  men.  In  order  to  make  use  of  them  he 
marched  against  Thionville,  which  he  captured  with  his  usual 
luck  and  rapidity  ;  but  to  counterbalance  this  success  M.  de 
Termes,  Governor  of  Calais,  was  worsted  at  Gravelines. 

In  1559  it  seemed  that  the  time  had  come  to  consider 
whether  circumstances  were  not  more  favourable  for  negotiat- 
Treaty  of  ^^S  ^  definite  peace.     The  French  and  Spanish 

Cateau-  plenipotentiaries  met  at  the  Abbey  of  Cercamps. 

Cambr^sis,  Philip  II  was  represented  by  Cardinal  de  Gran- 
^^^^*  velle,  the  Duke  of  Alba  and  the  Prince  of  Orange, 

and  Henry  II  by  Montmorency  and  Marshal  de  Saint -Andre, 
who  were  set  free  for  the  proceedings,  and  the  Cardinal  de 
Lorraine.  The  discussions  were  stormy.  Both  sides  demanded 
that  all  the  conquests  the  other  had  made  should  be  restored — 
an  agreement  by  which  France  would  have  been  the  loser.  The 
English  insisted  above  all  that  Calais  should  be  given  back  to 
them.  Mary  Tudor  meanwhile  had  died  and  had  been  suc- 
ceeded by  Elizabeth,  the  daughter  of  Henry  VIII  and  Anne 
Boleyn.  At  this  juncture  Elizabeth,  partly  from  conviction 
and  partly  from  expediency,  was  inclining  to  the  reformed  faith, 
and  Philip  II,  disgusted  at  her  attitude,  decided  not  to  give 
his  support  to  the  demands  of  England  ."^S  Finally  it  was  decided 
150 


EXTERNAL    PEACE.      HENRY    II 

that  Henry  II  should  keep  Calais  for  eight  years,  at  the  end  of 
which  period  he  was  to  pay  100,000  gold  crowns  if  he  did  net 
restore  it.  Calais,  as  is  well  known,  has  remained  French 
to  this  day.  On  the  east,  Henry  II  insisted  upon  keeping 
the  Three  Bishoprics.  This  was  a  question  for  the  Emperor 
Ferdinand,  who  had  his  hands  full  for  the  moment  with  the 
Turks  and  the  Protestants  ;  he  made  only  a  formal  resistance 
before  yielding.  With  Spain  a  rough-and-ready  agreement 
was  made.  Philip  II  gave  back  Saint-Quentin  and  the  neigh- 
bouring fortresses,  whilst  Henry  II  restored  Thionville  and 
Marienburg.  As  for  Italy,  the  French  Government  determined 
to  go  to  the  root  of  the  matter,  and  resolutely  renounced 
all  connexion  with  that  country,  solemnly  renewing  its  definite 
abandonment  of  rights  in  Naples  and  Milan.  Savoy  and  Pied- 
mont were  kept,  but  they  were  restored  to  their  Duke,  Em- 
manuel Philibert,  who  had  put  in  a  vigorous  claim  for  them,  as 
Henry  II  did  not  consider  he  had  a  right  to  despoil  a  third 
party  unjustly.  In  order  to  save  appearances  it  was  decided 
that  Emmanuel  Philibert  should  marry  Henry  II 's  sister, 
Princess  Margaret,  who  had  waited  so  long  for  a  husband. 
She  was  over  thirty-six  and  possessed  neither  health  nor  beauty  ; 
but  she  was  gracious  and  amiable,  beloved  by  all  the  Court, 
and  Piedmont  and  Savoy  was  to  be  her  dowry.  But  as  a 
precaution  Henry  II  kept,  for  the  titne  being,  a  few  places 
such  as  Turin,  Pinerolo,  Chivasso,  and  Villanova.  Lastly,  to 
cement  the  reconciliation  with  Spain  it  was  arranged  that 
Philip  II  should  marry  Henry  II's  daughter  Elizabeth.  Every- 
thing was  at  length  settled,  and  on  April  3,  1559,  the  Treaty 
of  Cateau-Cambresis  was  signed. 

This  treaty  was  one  of  the  most  important  in  French  history. 
After  the  hard  and  arduous  labours  of  the  first  Capets  who  had 
to  establish  their  authority  in  their  own  possessions  ;  after  the 
painful  efTorts  of  their  successors,  who  had  to  consolidate  the 
whole  of  France  under  their  sway,  the  French  Kings  had  under- 
taken the  task  of  extending  their  power  beyond  the  borders  of 
their  own  country.  The  campaigns  in  Italy  had  been  a  mistake  ; 
an  obstinate  determination  to  make  distant  conquests  in 
foreign  regions,  which  it  was  impossible  to  keep  and  ruinous 
to  regain,  whilst  neglecting  territory  which  was  really  French 

151 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

and  whose  proximity  to  Paris  made  its  annexation  doubly 
indispensable,  was  irrational.  The  Peace  of  Cateau-Cam- 
bresis  put  an  end  once  for  all  to  the  Italian  wars  which  had 
lasted  for  sixty-five  years,  and  turned  the  attention  of  France 
to  the  north  and  the  east,  that  is  to  say,  into  its  proper  channels. 
The  populace  was  fully  aware  of  the  significance  of  this,  and 
hailed  the  peace  with  unfeigned  joy. 

But  on  the  other  hand  the  "  military  party  "  were  loud 
in  their  recriminations  and  protests.  To  abandon  Italy, 
Discontent  of  which  for  half  a  century  had  provided  an  un- 
*'  Military  rivalled  school  for  those  who  wished  to  learn  the 

Party."  art  of  war  !     To  sacrifice  Savoy  and  Piedmont,  a 

number  of  towns  and  fortresses  and  quantities  of  supplies,  by 
a  mere  signature  without  striking  a  blow  !  Nothing  more 
outrageous  could  be  imagined  !  "  Those  who  loved  France," 
moaned  Brantome,  "  wept  at  the  thought  !  "  "  In  a  single 
hour  and  by  a  single  stroke  of  the  pen,"  exclaimed  Vieilleville, 
"  to  give  up  everything,  and  with  three  or  four  drops  of  ink  to 
sully  and  besmirch  all  our  glorious  victories  in  the  past,  was 
indeed  depressing  and  degrading  to  our  souls  !  "  Brissac  and 
Monluc  joined  the  chorus.  Monluc  declared  that  180  fortresses 
were  being  surrendered,  and  calculated  that  something  like  a 
third  of  the  kingdom  would  be  lost,  while  in  the  opinion  of 
Brissac,  Piedmont  alone  was  worth  as  much  as  Burgundy  and 
Champagne  together.  "  And  thus  France  evacuated  so  many 
provinces,  towns,  and  castles  and  such  a  wondrous  tract  of 
country,  the  conquest  of  which  had  cost  the  late  King  over 
forty  millions  in  gold  and  a  hundred  thousand  human  souls  !  " 
Monsieur  de  Vigne,  however,  the  French  ambassador  at  Con- 
stantinople, wrote  with  greater  judgment  and  political  dis- 
crimination :  "A  second  Salic  Law  should  be  passed  to  have 
the  first  man  who  advises  the  renewal  of  the  Italian  wars  or 
the  surrender  or  exchange  of  the  towns  of  Metz  and  Calais, 
burnt  alive  as  a  heretic  !  "     He  was  perfectly  right. 

In  order  to  allow  the  people  to  join  more  heartily  in  the 
rejoicings  at  the  consummation  of  peace,  Henry  II  decided  that 
The  marriage  the  marriages  of  his  sister  and  his  daughter  should 
festivities.  be  solemnly  celebrated   in  Paris,  and   signalized 

by  a  long  series  of  brilliant  festivities  in  June,  1559.  The  Duke 
152 


EXTERNAL    PEACE.      HENRY    II 

of  Alba,  accompanied  by  a  magnificent  escort  of  500  horsemen, 
was  sent  from  Madrid  to  represent  the  King  of  Spain.  Em- 
manuel Philibert  of  Savoy  came  in  person.  The  Parliament 
was  moved  to  the  Augustinian  monastery  on  the  quay  in 
order  that  the  whole  of  the  Palace,  which  was  decorated  with 
tapestries,  might  be  free.  At  the  Tournelles,  where  Henry  II 
was  staying — the  Louvre  having  been  reserved  for  the  Duke 
of  Alba — a  vast  temporary  hall  was  erected  for  the  occasion. 
In  the  Rue  Saint-Antoine,  lists,  enclosures  for  tournaments 
and  jousts,  were  arranged  with  barriers  and  stands  hung  with 
tapestries. 

The  festivities  began  ;  there  was  a  succession  of  feasts 
and  banquets.  The  Provost  of  the  Merchants  and  Aldermen 
of  Paris  received  the  royal  guests  at  the  Hotel  de  Ville.  Tourna- 
ments and  jousts  followed  one  after  the  other  and  were 
attended  by  vast  crowds  of  people  who  had  collected  from 
every  corner  of  France,  and  who  were  delighted  by  what  they 
considered  the  superiority  of  their  own  countrymen  over  the 
Spaniards.  Henry  II  did  not  hesitate  to  take  part  in  the 
games.  Mounted  on  a  trained  charger  and  protected  by  heavy 
armour,  he  was  anxious  to  break  a  lance.  On  June  30,  jousts 
on  horseback  were  held  in  the  Rue  Saint-Antoine.  The  King 
announced  his  intention  of  riding  in  them.  According  to 
custom  he  had  to  break  three  lances  on  his  adversaries  without 
being  unseated.  The  first  two  he  broke  very  neatly  on  the 
Duke  of  Savoy  and  the  Duke  of  Guise.  For  the  third  his 
opponent  was  Montgommery,  the  son  of  M.  de  Lorges,  his 
captain  of  the  guard,  "  a  tall  stiff  young  man,"  says  Vieilleville. 
The  two  riders  charged  each  other  and  Montgommery  gave 
the  King  such  a  fierce  thrust  with  his  lance  that  he  almost 
unhorsed  him.  Henry  II  was  provoked,  and  insisted  upon 
having  his  revenge.  His  opponent  hesitated  and  declined, 
but  the  King  persisted  and  the  contest  had  to  be  renewed. 
This  time  both  lances  were  broken,  but  INIontgommery,  in 
raising  the  stump  of  his  weapon,  caught  and  opened  Henry  II 's 
visor,  and,  as  he  was  carried  along  by  his  horse's  impetus,  his 
broken  spike  went  into  the  King's  eye  and  pierced  his  brain. 
The  King  fell  forward  on  to  his  horse's  neck,  clasping  it  with 
his  arms.     The  animal  was  stopped  and  the  prince  was  taken 

153 


CENTURY    OF    THE     RENAISSANCE 

down,  laid  flat  and  undressed,  after  which  he  was  carried  to 
his  room,  where  five  or  six  surgeons  tried  to  extract  the  spHnters. 
But  their  efforts  were  futile,  and  for  nine  days  Henry  II  lay 
Death  of  unconscious.     On  the  tenth  he  died,  at  the  age  of 

Henry  H,  1559.  forty-two.  On  the  eve  of  his  death  the  religious 
ceremonies  of  the  marriages  were  quickly  performed  at  mid- 
night. "  The  proceedings  were  more  like  a  funeral  procession 
and  obsequies  than  anything  else."  The  consternation  among 
the  people  was  universal.  Catherine  de'  Medici  was  beside 
herself,  and  remained  for  a  whole  day  prostrated  by  grief 
without  being  able  to  utter  a  syllable.  "  I  am  afraid  she  will 
have  a  terrible  illness,"  Mary  Stuart  wrote  to  her  mother. 
And  for  the  rest  of  her  life  Catherine  de'  Medici  wore  mourning 
for  the  man  she  had  loved  so  well  and  who  was  torn  from  her 
in  such  a  tragic  manner  ! 

Sources.  Leitres  de  Catherine  de  Medicis,  ed.  La  Ferriere  and  Bague- 
nault  de  Puchesse  ;  Brantome,  CEuvres  completes,  ed.  Lalanne  ;  Tommaseo, 
Relations  des  ambassadeurs  venitiens,  1838  ;  Alberi,  Relazioni  degli  ambas- 
ciatori  veneti  al  senato,  1839  ;  Marechal  de  Vieilleville,  Memoir es,  ed. 
Michaud  and  Poujoulat  (on  this  work  see  C.  Marchand,  Le  mardchal  de 
Vieilleville  et  ses  memoires,  1893) ;  Gaspard  de  Saulx-Tavannes,  Memoires, 
ed,  Michaud  and  Poujoulat ;  Monluc,  Commentaires  et  lettres,  ed.  de 
Ruble,  1864  ;  Fran§ois  de  Rabutin,  Commentaires  sur  le  fait  des  derniers 
guerres,  ed.  Buchon,  1836  ;  Pierre  de  la  Place,  Commentaires  de  Vetat  de 
la  religion  et  republique,  1565  ;  Lettres  inedites  de  Henri  II,  1818  ;  J.  B. 
Gail,  Lettres  inedites  de  Henri  II,  Diane  de  Poitiers,  Marie  Stuart,  1828  ; 
G.  Guiffrey,  Lettres  inidites  de  Diane  de  Poitiers,  1866  ;  Amb.  Pare,  Rela- 
tion du  siege  de  Metz  en  1552,  1847  ;  Bertrand  de  Salignac,  Le  siige  de 
Metz  en  Van  1552,  ed.  Michaud  and  Poujoulat. 

Works.  Leopold  Ranke,  Histoire  de  Franee  pendant  le  XVP  et  le 
XVir  siecle,  translated  into  French  by  Porchat,  1854  ;  E.  de  la  Barre- 
Duparcq,  Histoire  de  Henri  II,  1887  ;  H.  Bouchot,  Catherine  de  Midicis, 
1899  ;  M.  Hay,  Madame  Diane  de  Poytiers,  1900  ;  F.  Decrue,  Anne  de 
Montmorency,  1889  ;  H.  Forneron,  Les  dues  de  Guise  et  leur  epoque,  1877  ; 
J.  Delaborde,  Gaspart  de  Coligny,  amiral  de  France,  1879  ;  Chabert,  Le 
siege  de  Metz  en  1552,  1856  ;  Mignet,  Charles-Quint,  son  abdication,  1857  ; 
Gachard,  Retraite  et  mart  de  Charles-Quint,  1852  ;  La  guerre  de  1557  en 
Picardie,  bataille  de  Saint-Laurent,  sidge  de  Saint-Quentin,  1896  ;  A.  de 
Ruble,  Le  traite  de  Cateau-Cambresis,  1889  ;  P.  Courteault,  Blaise  de 
Monluc,  1909. 


154 


CHAPTER  V 
THE  DRAMA  OF  PROTESTANTISM.     FRANCIS  II 

The  rise  of  Protestantism  in  France  ;  its  favourable  reception  at 
Court  at  first ;  subsequent  hostility  of  Francis  I ;  statuette  of  the 
Virgin  smashed  in  Paris,  1528  ;  the  posting  of  placards  by  the 
Protestants,  1534  ;  several  executions,  1535.  Case  of  Merindol  and 
Cabrieres,  1545.  Repressive  policy  of  Henry  II  ;  the  Edict  of 
Ch4teaubriant  of  1551  ;  the  trial  of  Anne  du  Bourg,  1547.  The 
organization  of  Calvinism,  its  doctrine  and  discipline  ;  Jean  Calvin, 
1509-1564.  The  first  reformed  church  in  Paris,  1555  ;  the  first  synod 
in  Paris,  1559.  Francis  II,  1559-1560.  The  Guises  seize  the  reins 
of  power.  Growth  and  progress  of  Protestantism ;  increasingly 
repressive  policy  of  the  Guises,  1560.  Press  campaign  on  the  part 
of  the  Protestants  ;  discontent  of  the  Catholics  at  the  autocratic 
and  miserly  government  of  the  Guises  ;  the  Conspiracy  of  Amboise, 
1560.  The  executions  following  upon  it ;  attempt  to  compromise 
the  Bourbons  in  the  conspiracy.  Signs  of  the  approach  of  civil 
war ;  the  moderates  succeed  in  securing  the  convocation  of  the 
States-General  at  Orleans  ;  arrest  of  the  Prince  of  Conde.  Sudden 
death  of  Francis  II,  1560. 

"  TTN  the  year  1520,"  says  the  Bourgeois  de  Paris,  "  there 
I  arose  in  the  Duchy  of  Saxony,  in  Germany,  a 
-"-  heretical  doctor  of  theology  of  the  Order  of  St.  Augus- 
tine, named  Martin  Luther,  who  said  many  things  against 
the  authority  of  the  Pope  and  compiled  whole  books  in  his 
Rise  o!  desire  to   diminish   it,    writing   also   against  the 

Protestantism  ordinances  and  ceremonies  of  the  Church." 
in  France.  These  books  penetrated  into  France,  and  Pope 

Leo  X  warned  Francis  I  about  them  with  a  view  to  having 
them  condemned.  It  was  thus  that  the  Protestant  Reforma- 
tion was  first  heard  of  in  Paris.  Following  the  instructions 
given,  the  Parliament  had  the  trumpets  sounded  in  the  public 
places  and  proclaimed  that  all  books  by  Martin  Luther  were 
to  be  delivered  up  on  pain  of  imprisonment,  with  the  result 

155 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

that  a  certain  Louis  Berquin  was  convicted  of  having  translated 
some  of  these  works  and  was  cast  into  gaol,  whilst  his  books 
were  burnt  in  front  of  Notre  Dame  de  Paris,  He  himself  would 
have  been  put  to  death  had  not  Francis  I  intervened  and  begged 
that  he  should  be  let  alone.  Meanwhile  the  rumour  was  spread- 
ing that  the  new  heresy  was  making  converts  in  various  places, 
and  as  a  precaution  mendicant  friars  were  sent  in  1523  all  over 
the  country  to  preach  against  the  false  doctrines.  In  1525, 
a  Cordelier  was  arrested  at  Grenoble,  on  the  charge  of  having 
given  utterance  to  Lutheran  ideas,  and  one  of  the  Lords  Justices 
of  the  place,  the  Grand  Commander  of  Viennois,  sentenced  him 
to  the  stake.  This  man  was  one  of  the  first  adherents  of  the 
Reformation  to  pay  for  his  ideas  with  his  life.  The  measure 
was  hotly  criticized,  but  people  in  the  end  came  to  the  conclusion 
that  it  was  justified  on  the  ground  that  it  was  the  duty  of  the 
magistrates  to  avenge  the  honour  of  the  Almighty,  which  was 
outraged  by  heresy,  and  also  to  protect  society  ;  for  heresy 
upset  society  "  and  tended  altogether  to  the  subversion  of 
human  monarchy."  The  first  step  had  been  taken.  In  1526, 
on  February  17,  "  veille des brandons,"  a  young  licentiate  of  law 
named  Guillaume  Joubert,  aged  twenty-eight,  was  sentenced 
by  the  Parliament  of  Paris  to  be  conveyed  in  a  cart  to  the 
Place  Maubert  and  there  to  have  his  tongue  pierced  and  after- 
wards to  be  strangled  and  burnt  "  for  having  held  the  doctrines 
of  Luther."  On  August  28  a  Picardy  scholar  was  sent  to  the 
stake  for  the  same  reason  in  the  Place  de  Gr^ve.  What  were 
the  doctrines  professed  by  the  new  heretics  ?  The  people  were 
extremely  vague  on  the  subject.  They  maintained  that  the 
Lutherans  wished  to  do  away  with  the  images  of  the  Saints, 
refused  the  use  of  holy  water,  and  objected  to  prayers  for 
the  dead  ;  and  they  accordingly  held  them  in  detestation.  The 
magistrates,  for  their  part,  as  the  vigilant  guardians  of  public 
order,  would  not  allow  any  heresy  to  destroy  that  order,  and 
consequently  thought  it  their  duty  to  punish  the  delinquents, 
who,  by  attacking  the  divine  majesty  and  by  blasphemy  were 
guilty  of  an  inexpiable  crime  that  deserved  capital  punishment. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  owing  to  the  comparative  rarity  of  this 
criminal  offence,  sentence  of  death  was  passed  readily  enough 
for  the  sake  of  making  examples,  and  Lutherans  were  either 
156 


THE    DRAMA    OF    PROTESTANTISM 

burnt  or  hanged — sentences  which  at  the  time  were  not  regarded 
as  excessive. 

These  first  repressive  measures  did  not  stop  the  spread  of 
the  new  doctrines.  A  strong  current  of  criticism  was  begin- 
ning to  make  itself  felt,  and  suspicion  began  to  fall  upon 
preachers,  because  even  from  the  pulpit  they  declared  that 
regrettable  abuses  certainly  existed  in  the  Church.  Gradually 
the  idea  gained  ground  that  there  was  obviously  something 
to  be  said  against  practices  which  had  needlessly  been  intro- 
duced into  the  Catholic  religion,  and  at  Court  this  point  of 
view  presented  itself  under  a  peculiar  aspect. 

Guillaume  Brigonnet,  Bishop  of  Meaux,  was  a  man  endowed 
with  an  open  and  inquiring  mind.  He  loved  learning  and  had 
gathered  around  him  a  band  of  erudite  philologists,  among 
whom  were  Guillaume  Farel,  a  native  of  Dauphiny,  and  three 
men  from  Picardy,  Gerard  Roussel,  Arnaud,  and  Jacques 
Lefevre.  These  four  philologists  studied  the  Bible  together 
in  the  Hebrew  or  Greek  texts  and  hazarded  some  criticisms 
which  seemed  inspired  by  the  Lutheran  spirit.  The  Parliament 
of  Paris  was  informed  of  the  matter  and  appointed  a  commission 
to  inquire  into  it.  The  four  learned  men  took  fright  and  crossed 
the  frontier  into  Germany,  whilst  Bri9onnet,  who  was  repri- 
manded, made  his  excuses.  But  Farel  and  his  friends  had  left 
behind  them  a  small  nucleus  of  followers. 

It  was  this  element  of  erudition  that  had  first  attracted  the 
attention  of  Princess  Margaret  of  Valois.  Deeply  interested 
Margaret  of  ^^  ^^^  ^^^  ^^  anything  that  was  new,  Francis  I's 
Valois  favours  sister  could  not  fail  to  be  enticed  by  what  appeared 
the  Pro-  to  her  the  results  of  research,  and  the  irrefutable 

testants.  truths  of  philology.     In  1527,  she  married  Henri 

dAlbret,  King  of  Navarre,  who  was  on  bad  terms  with  the 
Papacy  ;  for  Julius  II  had  excommunicated  his  father,  Jean 
dAlbret,  in  1512,  and  had  given  Spanish  Navarre  to  Ferdinand 
of  Aragon — an  illegal  manner  of  disposing  of  kingdoms  that 
were  not  fiefs  of  the  Church,  against  which  the  Kings  of  Navarre, 
supported  by  the  King  of  France,  had  lodged  violent  protests. 
The  Albrets  were  consequently  perfectly  ready  to  listen  with 
favour  to  anything  that  was  said  against  the  Pope.  As  soon 
as  she  was  installed  at  Beam,  Margaret  of  Valois  welcomed 

157 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

Jacques  Lefevre  to  her  house,  as  well  as  Gerard  Roussel,  who 
passed  for  a  saint  and  whom  she  made  her  spiritual  director. 
These  men  were  not  actually  "  Lutherans/'  but  in  the  name 
of  history  they  criticized  the  Catholic  institutions  of  their  day, 
demanding  the  Communion  in  both  kinds,  refusing  to  admit 
the  strict  doctrine  of  the  Real  Presence  in  the  Eucharist  as  the 
Church  did,  and  proclaiming  that  the  Church  had  corrupted 
the  purity  of  the  religion  of  Christ  by  superstitious  inventions. 
When  Margaret  returned  to  Francis  I  in  Paris,  she  tried  to  make 
him  share  these  new  opinions  with  her. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  new  teaching  had  already  found  a 
sympathetic  echo  in  the  frivolous  society  at  Court.  After  all. 
Attitude  of  ^*  ^^^  argued,  why  should  it  not  be  possible  to 
the  Court  to  take  and  keep  hold  of  the  substance  of  the  Christian 
Protestantism,  faith  "  just  as  Jesus  Christ  had  founded  it,  and 
the  Apostles  had  published  it  abroad  and  drawn  it  up  in  writing," 
and  to  reject  "  the  superstitions  and  accretions  "  which  had 
been  added  by  time,  recognizing  only  the  pure  Word  of 
God  and  the  life  of  the  primitive  Church ;  to  worship  God  in 
spirit  and  in  truth  ;  to  exercise  that  "  Christian  liberty  that 
shakes  off  the  yoke  of  superstition  and  man's  traditions 
and  clings  to  God  alone,"  in  short  "  to  reform  morals  and  do 
away  with  certain  abuses  that  had  crept  into  the  Church." 
This  did  not  mean  separation  from  the  Church.  With  their 
minds  set  at  rest  by  such  arguments  as  these  "  everybody," 
says  Florimond  de  Raymond,  "  wished  to  sample  the  novelty." 
When  the  "  sweet  and  soothing  "  fashion  of  singing  Marot's 
French  translation  of  the  Psalms  was  introduced  it  was  thought 
very  beautiful.  Everybody  joined  in  the  singing,  and  it  be- 
came a  regular  furore  at  Court.  "  The  metrical  version  of  the 
Psalms  attracted  the  souls  of  men  by  their  harmony." 

At  first  Francis  I,  in  his  easy  way,  paid  no  particular  atten- 
tion to  the  new  ideas.  Though  he  did  not  share  them  he  did 
not  regard  them  with  antipathy.  He  had  had  Berquin  released, 
and  at  one  moment  he  even  consented,  at  Margaret's  request, 
to  send  to  Germany  for  the  Lutheran,  Philip  Melancthon,  upon 
whose  influence  the  princess  counted  to  touch  her  brother's 
heart.  But  he  gradually  changed  his  mind  on  the  subject. 
Francis  I  was  after  all  a  ruler,  and  in  conjunction  with  his 
158 


THE    DRAMA    OF    PROTESTANTISM 

counsellors,  the  Cardinal  de  Tournon  and  the  Cardmal  de 
Lorraine,  he  came  to  the  conclusion  that  to  favour  the  spread 
of  heresy  meant  to  compromise  the  unity  of  the  State,  to  shake 
the  foundations  of  the  kingdom,  and  to  lay  himself  open  to 
all  manner  of  trouble,  as  the  populace  would  remain  firmly 
attached  to  the  Catholic  religion.  He  made  up  his  mind,  and 
certain  incidents  shortly  afterwards  occurred  which  greatly 
incensed  him. 

On  the  morning  of  Whit  Monday,  1528,  the  statuette  of 
the  Virgin  which  stood  at  the  angle  of  Monsieur  Harlai's  house 
in  front  of  the  door  of  Petit  Saint -Antoine's  Church  in  the 
parish  of  Saint-Germain  in  Paris,  was  found  mutilated.  The 
heretics  had  smashed  the  heads  of  the  Virgin  and  Child.  Public 
opinion,  which  had  already  been  roused  against  the  Lutherans, 
was  extremely  excited,  and  there  was  a  considerable  uproar. 
The  King  and  the  government  thought  it  incumbent  on  them 
to  share  the  general  resentment.  Francis  I  promised  a  reward 
of  a  thousand  crowns  to  anyone  who  would  denounce  the 
culprits,  and  replaced  the  mutilated  statuette  by  a  new  one  in 
silver.  He  brought  it  solemnly  in  person  accompanied  by  an 
impressive  procession  in  which  all  the  parishes  of  the  city 
were  represented,  as  well  as  Parliament,  officials,  prelates, 
nobility,  and  gentry,  surrounded  by  a  vast  concourse  of  people. 

Parliament  began  to  take  severe  measures.  Louis  Berquin, 
who  was  imprudent  enough  to  draw  attention  to  himself  again, 
was  once  more  arrested  and  tried.  He  frankly  confessed  his 
ideas,  did  not  conceal  the  fact  that  he  had  written  Lutheran 
books,  and  showed  copies  of  them.  He  was  condemned  to 
death.  The  King  was  at  Blois,  and  in  order  to  prevent  the  royal 
intervention  from  saving  the  culprit  as  on  the  previous  occasion, 
he  was  executed  at  once  before  the  news  could  reach  Francis  I. 

The  Provost  of  Paris,  the  head  of  the  criminal  department, 
and  all  the  judges  tried  cases  and  condemned  the  accused. 
When  the  Provost  gave  a  lenient  sentence,  and  the  prisoner 
nevertheless  appealed  to  the  Parliament,  the  latter  made  the 
penalty  more  severe.  But,  as  is  always  the  case  when  persecu- 
tion intervenes,  the  zeal  of  the  adherents  of  "  the  new  teaching," 
far  from  being  cowed,  merely  grew  stronger,  and  the  Lutherans 
retorted  by  various  reprisals. 

159 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

The  mutilation  of  the  Virgin  on  Monsieur  Harlai's  house 
had  been  an  isolated  incident.  But  it  was  now  repeated.  In 
Protestant  May,  1530,  the  statuettes  of  Our  Lady,  of  the 

outrages  and  Infant  Christ,  of  Saint  Roch  and  Saint  Fiacre, 
Catholic  which  stood  at  the  angles  of  houses,  were  broken 

reprisals.  during  the  night,  and  each  outrage  necessitated 

an  expiatory  procession  on  the  part  of  all  the  parishes.  The 
Parliament,  in  scarlet  robes,  accompanied  these  processions 
and  promised  a  reward  of  twenty  gold  crowns  to  any  person 
giving  information  against  a  Lutheran  culprit.  The  populace 
was  furiously  excited,  and  a  further  outrage,  which  was  even 
graver  and  more  audacious,  brought  their  rage  to  boiling-point. 
On  October  18,  1534,  heretical  placards  were  discovered  posted 
up  everywhere,  attacking  "  the  Holy  Sacrament  of  the  Altar 
and  the  honour  of  the  Saints."  There  were  even  some  in  the 
Louvre,  on  the  door  of  the  apartments  of  the  King,  who  hap- 
pened to  be  away  at  Amboise  ;  and  some  were  also  taken  to 
Amboise  itself.  There  was  a  universal  outburst  of  indignation. 
The  King  was  furious,  and  commanded  the  magistrates  of  Paris 
to  do  "  rigorous  justice."  They  forthwith  proceeded  to  make 
numerous  arrests,  followed  by  executions.  The  year  1535  was 
the  first  blood-stained  year  in  the  annals  of  Protestantism  All 
kinds  of  people  were  arrested.  It  was  quite  enough  for  a  man 
to  have  a  Lutheran  book  in  his  house  for  him  to  be  suspect. 
Shoemakers,  woollen-drapers,  printers,  booksellers,  clerics,  rich 
merchants,  scholars,  and  attorneys  were  seized,  and  the  Parlia- 
ment and  the  head  of  the  criminal  department  vied  with  each 
other  in  condemning  the  culprits,  who  were  burnt  at  the  Halles, 
at  the  Croix  du  Trahoir,  at  the  end  of  the  Pont  Saint-Michel, 
at  the  Place  Maubert,  at  the  Carrefour  du  Puits  Sainte-Gene- 
vieve,  and  in  the  cemetery  of  Saint  Jean  ;  at  the  pig-market 
they  hanged  in  iron  chains  those  who  had  been  condemned  to 
death,  after  dragging  them  on  hurdles  to  the  front  of  Notre 
Dame.  Those  who  were  most  leniently  treated  were  banished 
after  doing  penance  by  standing  in  their  shirts  with  bare 
feet,  holding  a  candle  in  their  hands,  in  front  of  a  church  or 
during  the  celebration  of  High  Mass  ;  they  had  previously  been 
birched  on  a  cart,  and  had  had  their  goods  confiscated.  When 
the  accused  persisted  in  their  blasphemies  and  refused  to 
160 


THE    DRAMA    OF     PROTESTANTISM 

recant,  their  tongues  were  cut  out.  Numbers  of  people  fled 
in  fear.  The  ParHament  summoned  seventy-three  persons  who 
had  disappeared  to  stand  their  trial — among  them  Clement 
Marot.  Men,  women,  and  children  of  all  ages  and  all  ranks 
fell  victims  ;  and  public  opinion  signified  its  approval.  Matters 
reached  such  a  pitch  that  Francis  I  began  to  think  the  authorities 
were  going  too  far.  At  his  request  Parliament  stopped  the 
persecutions.  A  lull  followed,  and  the  seventy-three  Lutherans 
who  had  been  banished  by  proclamation  were  authorized  to 
return.  Prisoners  were  released  with  a  warning  that  if  they 
were  arrested  again  they  would  be  sent  to  the  stake.  The  King 
explained  to  the  ambassador  Giustiniano  that  he  had  some 
difficulty  in  getting  heretics  burnt,  especially  as  it  was  not  done 
in  Flanders. 

But  the  impetus  had  been  given,  and  Francis  I  was  obliged 
once  more  to  see  his  magistrates,  with  the  sanction  of  public 
opinion,  exceed  the  limits  he  himself  would  have  set.  In  the 
villages  of  Provence  there  were  a  certain  number  of  people  who 
were  said  to  have  held  somewhat  heretical  ideas  for  a  long  time, 
ever  since  the  thirteenth  century.  They  drew  their  inspiration 
from  the  Holy  Scriptures  and  maintained  that  as  the  words 
Mass,  Pope,  and  Purgatory  could  not  be  found  in  the  Gospel, 
they  were  not  bound  to  accept  them.  These  people  hated 
Catholicism.  They  were  known  as  the  Vaudois.  Attracted 
by  a  certain  community  of  feeling,  the  Protestants  studied 
their  doctrines  sympathetically,  as  those  of  precursors.  The 
Vaudois,  on  their  side,  adopted  the  ideas  of  Luther  ;  and  out 
of  this  certain  incidents  arose.  The  Vice-Legate  of  Avignon 
intended  to  lodge  information  against  some  of  them  ;  they 
thereupon  took  up  arms,  and  committed  some  acts  of  pillage 
and  murder.  The  Parliament  of  Aix  opened  an  inquiry  into 
the  matter,  and  having  convicted  the  inhabitants  of  two 
Case  of  particular   towns — Merindol    and    Cabrieres — of 

Merindol  and  heresy,  passed  sentence  on  November  18,  1540, 
Cabri6res.  to  the   effect  that  these  two   places   should   be 

destroyed  and  their  inhabitants  banished.  Francis  I,  who  was 
annoyed  by  these  proceedings,  ordered  the  execution  of  the 
sentence  to  be  postponed.  But  after  the  lapse  of  four  years, 
the  Parliament  of  Aix  determined  to  put  an  end  to  the  matter 

L  161 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

and,  at  the  instigation  of  d'Oppede,  the  First  President, 
and  Guillaume  Guerin,  the  Advocate-General,  they  appointed 
a  commission  of  five  members  to  proceed  to  the  execution  of 
the  sentence.  The  commissioners  made  an  agreement  with 
Captain  Pauhn,  Baron  de  la  Garde,  who  let  loose  his  soldiers 
and  allowed  them  to  commit  all  kinds  of  excesses.  They 
massacred  the  people  and  burned  twenty-four  villages.  It 
was  said  that  the  victims  numbered  3000,  whilst  900  houses 
were  burnt  down.  The  matter  made  a  great  stir  in  France 
and  the  King,  in  hot  indignation,  resolved  not  to  allow  such 
excesses  to  pass  unpunished  ;  he  ordered  the  magistrates  of 
Aix  to  stand  their  trial  before  the  Parliament  of  Paris.  The 
proceedings  dragged  on  interminably.  Francis  I  did  not  live 
to  see  the  end  of  them,  and  under  Henry  II,  when  ideas  had 
undergone  a  change,  after  a  final  trial,  which  lasted  for  fifty 
sittings,  d'Oppede  and  three  of  the  commissioners,  together 
with  Paulin,  were  acquitted.  Guillaume  Guerin  alone  was 
found  guilty  of  having  forged  certain  documents,  and  for  this 
offence  was  beheaded  in  the  Place  de  Greve.  On  the  whole, 
Francis  I,  although  his  ruler's  instinct  told  him  that  it  was 
impossible  to  countenance  heresy  without  compromising  the 
unity  of  the  State,  would  have  inclined  to  toleration  had  he 
not  been  irritated  by  various  provocations.  But  his  magistrates, 
who  were  whole-heartedly  Catholic  and  anxious  to  preserve 
public  order  with  a  firm  hand,  over-ruled  him. 

Under  Henry  II,  however,  the  aspect  of  affairs  changed. 
Protestantism  had  continued  to  spread.  Pierre  de  la  Place, 
Repressive  i^  ^^^  -^^^^  ^^  ^'^  Religion  et  de  la  Ripuhlique,  says  : 
policy  of  "  Men  talked  of  nothing  but  the  increase  in  the 

Henry  II.  numbers  of  the  Lutherans,  in  spite  of  the  severe 

measures  and  punishments  inflicted  on  them,  and  of  the  secret 
meetings  which  were  held  both  by  day  and  by  night  in  many 
places,  more  particularly  in  the  City  of  Paris."  And,  indeed, 
the  Lutherans,  formerly  isolated  individuals,  had  now  formed 
themselves  into  groups,  meeting  secretly  for  common  prayer 
and  mutual  exhortation.  Like  everything  mysterious,  these 
meetings  excited  the  suspicions  of  the  multitude,  and  one  night 
thewrath  of  the  populace  broke  out.  In  the  Rue  Saint-Jacques, 
in  front  of  the  College  du  Plessis,  an  assembly  of  about  100  or 
162 


THE    DRAMA    OF    PROTESTANTISM 

120  people  was  discovered.  Crowds  flocked  to  the  spot,  and 
when  the  congregation  tried  to  escape  they  were  attacked  and 
overwhelmed.  The  women  were  beaten,  had  their  hair  pulled 
down,  and  were  rolled  in  the  mud,  whilst  a  few  people  were 
killed.  Among  those  present  were  some  ladies  of  rank — 
Madame  de  Rentigny,  Madame  de  Champagne,  and  Madame 
de  Graveron  ;  a  Parliamentary  lawyer,  Monsieur  de  Gravelles, 
and  an  aged  University  Professor,  Monsieur  Clinet.  Arrests 
were  made,  and  the  Parliament  had  the  culprits  burnt  in  the 
Place  Maubert  after  their  tongues  had  been  cut  out. 

These  meetings  provoked  a  fresh  outburst  of  persecution. 
Henry  II,  less  broad-minded  than  his  father,  had  not  the  sort 
of  scepticism  which  predisposes  to  toleration.  He  was  a  stricter 
Catholic  and  was  scandalized  at  seeing  what  he  held  to  be 
divine  truth  a  matter  of  dispute.  Moreover,  the  progress  of 
the  Reformation,  which  daily  became  more  threatening,  con- 
stituted a  growing  menace  to  the  State,  and  the  Council  was 
even  more  alarmed  than  the  King.  The  first  measure  taken 
by  Henry  II  in  1549  was  to  open  a  special  court  in  the  Parlia- 
ment of  Paris  for  the  prosecution  of  heretics.  It  was  called 
the  "  burning  chamber  "  {Chambre  ardente).  In  1551  he  pub- 
The  Edict  oJ  lished  an  edict  known  as  the  Edict  of  Chateau- 
Chateaubriant,  briant,  which  classified  in  forty-six  articles  all 
1551.  the  measures  passed  against  the  Lutherans  and 

codified  the  laws  dealing  with  them.  It  was  high  time,  asserted 
the  preamble  to  this  document,  that  precautions  should  be 
taken.  "  The  error  grows  from  day  to  day  and  from  hour  to 
hour,  and  has  become  a  common  plague  "  .  .  .  "  this  is  the 
cause  of  God,  in  which  every  man  is  bound  to  lend  a  hand  and 
use  all  his  strength."  The  printing,  sale,  or  possession  of 
heretical  books  was  accordingly  forbidden,  informers  against 
heretics  were  to  be  given  a  third  of  their  goods,  and  any  indi- 
vidual convicted  of  holding  Lutheran  ideas  was  to  be  condemned 
to  death.  In  order  to  free  the  Parliaments  from  the  burden 
of  prosecuting  these  crimes,  inferior  tribunals,  called  presidial 
courts,  were  allowed  to  take  cognizance  of  them.  But,  in 
curious  contrast  to  the  state  of  affairs  under  Francis  I,  when 
the  magistrates  had  been  the  most  ardent  instigators  of  persecu- 
tion, the  rumour  now  became  rife  that  heresy,  which  was  gaining 

163 


CENTURY    OP   THE    RENAISSANCE 

ground  rapidly,  had  even  invaded  their  ranks,  and  that  they 
could  no  longer  be  trusted.  The  Edict  specified  that  in  future 
information  might  be  lodged  against  judges  who  were  suspected 
of  negligence  towards  the  Lutherans  ;  that  every  three  months 
sessions,  called  mercurial  sessions,  would  be  held  in  the  Law 
Courts,  when  religion  would  be  discussed,  in  order  to  keep  the 
magistrates  true  to  right  doctrine,  and  to  discover  whether 
any  of  them  were  tainted  with  heresy  ;  finally,  that  no  man 
would  be  made  a  judge  in  future  without  producing  a  certificate 
to  prove  that  he  was  a  good  Roman  Catholic. 

But  it  was  not  only  in  the  ranks  of  the  magistrates  that 
the  new  ideas  found  converts.  Every  class  in  society  was  in 
turn  corrupted.  Under  Francis  I  the  nobility  had  for  a  time 
been  drawn  towards  the  new  doctrines,  but  their  convictions 
had  not  been  very  profound.  Now,  however,  great  personages 
Heresy  gains  at  Court,  nobles  of  high  standing,  and  even  princes 
ground.  betrayed     an     intelligent    sympathy    with    the 

heretical  creed.  In  1558,  the  Cardinal  of  Lorraine,  who  had 
been  sent  to  the  frontier  of  the  Netherlands  to  arrange  a  peace 
with  the  Spanish  Minister,  Granvelle,  Bishop  of  Arras,  was 
informed  by  the  latter  that  he  possessed  proofs  showing  that 
the  kingdom  of  France  was  infested  by  Lutherans,  of  whom 
one  of  the  most  distinguished  was  d'Andelot,  the  nephew  of 
Constable  Montmorency  himself.  D'Andelot,  he  said,  had 
just  sent  to  his  brother  Coligny,  who  was  a  prisoner,  a 
book  which  contained  abominable  language  on  the  subject  of 
the  Mass.  On  his  return  to  Paris,  the  Cardinal  of  Lorraine 
warned  the  King,  who  was  irritated  by  the  news  and  also,  by 
reason  of  his  affection  for  the  Constable,  somewhat  embarrassed. 
However,  he  charged  d'Andelot's  brother,  the  Cardinal  de 
Chatillon,  to  try  to  obtain  from  the  culprit  some  satisfactory 
explanation  on  the  subject  of  his  beliefs.  D'Andelot  confined 
himself  to  declaring  that  no  man  should  force  him  to  say  any- 
thing of  which  his  conscience  did  not  approve.  At  this  juncture 
it  chanced  that  he  had  occasion  to  visit  the  Chateau  de  Mon- 
ceaux,  where  Henry  II  was  staying.  The  King  was  unable 
to  restrain  himself,  and  questioning  him  sharply,  asked  him 
whether  it  were  true,  as  people  declared,  that  he  regarded  the 
Mass  as  an  abomination.  D'Andelot  replied  very  firmly,  that 
164) 


THE    DRAMA    OF    PROTESTANTISM 

if  the  Mass  were  regarded  as  a  propitiatory  sacrifice  for  the 
sins  of  the  Uving  and  of  the  dead,  he  certainly  did  regard  it 
as  "a  detestable  and  abominable  thing,"  in  no  wise  instituted 
by  God,  seeing  that  the  death  of  Christ  constituted  once  and 
for  all  a  sufficient  sacrifice  and  oblation.  Henry  II  indignantly 
ordered  d'Andelot  to  leave  his  presence  on  the  spot,  and  then 
had  him  arrested  by  his  Master  of  the  Robes,  Babou  de  la 
Bourdaisiere,  and  conducted  by  a  strong  escort  under  the 
command  of  Monluc  to  the  Chateau  de  Melun,  where  he  was 
shut  up.  D'Andelot's  assurance  proved  the  confidence  he  felt 
in  the  general  progress  of  the  new  doctrine.  His  brother 
Coligny  was  a  convert,  as  well  as  the  King  of  Navarre,  Antoine 
de  Bourbon,  his  wife  Jeanne  d'Albret — daughter  of  Margaret 
of  Navarre  and  Henri  d'Albret — and  Antoine's  brother,  the 
Prince  of  Conde,  these  three  composing  an  important  group  of 
princes  of  the  blood  royal.  The  Bourbons,  together  with  the 
Chatillons — d'Andelot  and  Coligny — were  to  form  a  kind  of 
impressive  and  formidable  general  staff. 

This  spirit  of  confidence  increased.  It  was  certainly  true 
that  the  magistracy  was  becoming  more  seriously  infected  every 
day.  The  criminal  court  of  the  Parliament  of  Paris  showed 
itself  singularly  indulgent  towards  heretics,  whom  they  no 
longer  condemned,  but  merely  sent  before  the  Bishop.  If  the 
number  of  Lutherans  was  rapidly  increasing,  declared  the 
Cardinal  of  Lorraine  in  anger,  it  was  because  the  public  knew 
the  judges  were  conniving  at  heresy.  The  Government  was 
extremely  irritated.  On  one  occasion,  when  Seguier,  President 
of  La  Tournelle,  came  to  the  King  for  the  magistrates'  salaries, 
which  had  not  been  paid  for  twenty-two  months,  the  Cardinal 
of  Lorraine  answered  sharply,  "  Your  salaries  would  not  be 
kept  back  if  you  performed  your  duties  faithfully  !  "  When 
Seguier  answered  that  he  did  not  think  they  had  failed  in  this, 
the  Cardinal  exclaimed,  "  But  you  have  !  For  you  are  not 
punishing  the  heretics."  The  President  protested.  "  You  send 
them  up  to  their  Bishops,"  continued  Lorraine,  "  a  fine  expedi- 
tion indeed  !  "  Seguier  replied  that  they  could  not  pronounce 
against  their  consciences.  "  Then  you  are  the  cause,"  cried 
the  minister,  "  that  France  is  filled  to  overflowing  with  this 
vermin,  which,  trusting  in  you,  brings  forth  and  multiplies." 

165 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

Shortly  after  this  the  mercurial  session  prescribed  by  the 
law  was  held.  The  King  commanded  the  Bar  to  speak  with 
great  firmness.  On  the  appointed  day — ^the  last  Wednesday 
in  April,  1559 — the  session  was  opened  in  the  Augustinian 
monastery  on  the  quay,  as  the  Palace  was  engaged  for  the 
marriage  festivities.  The  Parliament  assembled  in  large 
numbers,  some  100  or  120  magistrates  being  present.  Bourdin, 
the  Attorney-General,  made  a  speech  in  which  he  vehemently 
arraigned  the  magistrates  "  for  disaffection  to  the  faith  and 
adhesion  to  the  false  doctrines  of  Luther  "  ;  which  meant  that 
La  Tournelle  did  not  condemn  heretics  to  death,  but  let  them 
go  free  contrary  to  the  ordinances.  There  was  a  disparity 
between  the  sentences  of  the  Grand  Chamber,  which  carried 
out  the  edicts  and  those  of  La  Tournelle,  which  merely  banished 
Lutherans.  This  disparity  was  a  "  scandal "  !  After  the 
speeches  were  finished,  the  opinions  of  the  members  were  asked 
in  the  usual  way,  and  all  the  magistrates,  one  after  the  other, 
expressed  their  views.  Those  who  had  leanings  towards  the 
new  doctrines  bravely  declared  that  abuses  and  errors  had 
undeniably  crept  into  the  practices  of  the  Catholic  Church  ; 
that  numbers  of  good  men  were  demanding  the  summoning 
of  a  general  council  to  decide  the  matter,  and  to  extirpate  these 
abuses  ;  and  that  in  the  meantime  it  was  only  reasonable  not 
to  inflict  capital  punishment  upon  people  who  adopted  a  critical 
attitude,  inasmuch  as  their  objections  might  be  proved  by  the 
council  to  have  some  foundation.  Amongst  those  who  were 
of  this  opinion  were  Du  Ferrier,  the  President  of  the  Court  of 
Inquiry,  and  Antoine  Fumee.  The  session  was  terminated  before 
all  opinions  had  been  taken,  and  the  further  discussion  of  the 
question  was  adjourned  till  the  next  meeting.  In  the  meanwhile 
the  Presidents,  Le  Maitre  and  Minard,  went  to  the  King  to  give 
him  an  account  of  the  views  that  had  been  expressed  at  the 
mercurial.  There  was  no  longer  any  room  for  doubt !  the 
heretics  had  the  efTrontery  to  advertise  their  beliefs  before  the 
whole  Parliament,  and  from  the  magisterial  benches,  under 
peculiarly  irritating  circumstances  !  Henry  II  decided  that 
he  would  be  present  at  the  next  mercurial  and  listen  to  the 
speeches.  At  this  session,  over  which  the  King  presided,  the 
Catholic  magistrates  demanded  the  application  of  the  existing 
166 


THE     DRAMA    OF     PROTESTANTISM 

edicts  without  any  alteration  whatever.  But  the  counsellors, 
Claude  Viole,  Louis  Dufaur,  and  Anne  du  Bourg,  pronounced 
for  the  suspension  of  capital  punishment  until  the  council  had 
met.  Dufaur  was  highly  intelligent,  and  Anne  du  Bourg,  a  young 
magistrate  of  thirty-seven,  extremely  eloquent.  He  made  a 
passionate  and  vivacious  speech  in  which  he  displayed  more 
courage  than  prudence.  When  all  was  over,  Henry  II  curtly 
ordered  Saint-Germain,  the  Registrar,  to  read  the  minutes  of 
all  the  opinions  that  had  been  expressed,  and  then  declared 
that  there  were  certain  magistrates  in  the  Parliament  who  had 
"strayed  from  the  faith,"  and  that  he  had  decided  to  punish 
them.  Thereupon,  turning  towards  the  Constable,  who  was 
also  present,  he  ordered  him  immediately  to  arrest  Louis  Dufaur, 
Anne  du  Bourg,  Claude  Viole,  Antoine  Fumee,  du  Ferricr,  and 
three  others,  whom  a  captain  of  the  guard  was  to  conduct  to 
the  Bastille  forthwith.  On  his  return  to  the  palace  the  King, 
beside  himself  with  rage,  exclaimed  "  that  he  would  go  and 
see  Du  Bourg  burnt  with  his  own  eyes."  A  judicial  commission, 
consisting  of  a  President  of  the  Parliament,  a  Master  of  Requests, 
two  counsellors,  the  Bishop  of  Paris  and  an  Inquisitor  of  the 
Faith  was  appointed  to  judge  the  prisoners.  Henry  II,  how- 
ever, was  not  destined  to  be  present  at  the  end  of  the  trial  or 
*'  to  see  du  Bourg  burnt  " — ^for  Montgommery's  lance  laid  him 
low  a  few  days  afterwards. 

Far  from  arresting  the  spread  of  the  Reformation,  Henry  II 's 
repressive  policy  merely  increased  it.  But  in  addition  to  these 
temporary  conditions,  a  circumstance  of  considerable  importance 
had  for  some  time  been  conducing  to  the  growth  and  spread 
of  heresy  :  Calvin  had  just  provided  it  with  a  creed,  a  discipline, 
and  an  organization. 

Martin  Luther,  a  vigorous  and  fiery  spirit,  had  contributed 
not  so  much  to  the  founding  of  a  new  "  religion  "  as  to  the 
overthrow  throughout  Christendom  of  the  ancient  compact 
faith  of  the  Middle  Ages.  He  had  begun  by  criticizing  the 
abuse  of  putting  up  spiritual  indulgences  for  sale  by  auction. 
Rome  would  not  tolerate  criticism  of  any  kind,  but  Luther, 
sure  of  his  ground,  persisted,  and  supported  by  public  opinion, 
extended  the  scope  of  his  invective.  In  the  face  of  coercive 
measures    of     the   ecclesiastical   authorities,    who    declined   to 

167 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

enter  into   any  discussions,   but  merely    condemned  him,   he 
had  opened  an  attack,  arousing  the  enthusiasm  of  the  multi- 
tude by  his  fiery  eloquence  in  support  of  a  cause  which    was 
becoming  popular.     Little  by  little,  carried  away  by  his  own 
feelings,  and  the  favour  of  public  opinion,  he  had  succeeded  in 
undermining  the   very  foundations   of  Catholicism.     And   he 
thus  destroyed  the  prestige  of  absolutism  in  the  eyes  of  the 
people,  who  had  hitherto  regarded  the  teaching  of  the  Church 
as  the  expression  of  eternal  truth.     Everybody  now  thought 
himself  capable  of  dissecting  the  ark  of  the  covenant,  and  of 
discriminating  in  accordance  with  his  own  private  tastes,  know- 
ledge, and  tendencies  between  doctrines  he  regarded  as  accept- 
able and  those  he  rejected  as  false.     Lutheranism  to  the  subjects 
of  Francis  I  was  merely  the  right  to  criticize  Catholicism.     It 
was  in  this  sense  that  scholars  like  Farel  and  his  friends  at 
Meaux  were  Lutherans,  and,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  though  they 
may  have  agreed  upon  the  points  to  be  rejected,  they  were 
not  unanimous  as  to  those  that  were  to  be  accepted.     It  was 
reserved  for  Jean  Calvin  to  formulate  the  creed  of  Protestantism. 
Jean  Calvin  was  born  at  Noyon  in  1509.     His  father  was 
a  certain  Gerard  Cauvin  (Calvin  is  the  Latinized  form  of  Cauvin), 
Jean  Calvin,       who  was  attorney,  registrar  to  the  diocesan  courts, 
1509-1564.         notary  to  the  Chapter,  and  procurator  fiscal  to  the 
episcopal   county — in   short,   a   sort   of    ecclesiastical  lawyer. 
Thus,  Jean  Calvin's  earliest  recollections  were  connected  with 
his  father's  quarrels  with  dignitaries  of  the  Church.     When  on 
one  occasion  he  was  summoned  to  show  his  accounts,  Gerard 
Cauvin    refused.     He    was    abused,    threatened,    and    excom- 
miunicated,    and   in    1531    the    unfortunate   attorney   died   in 
disgrace  and  was  denied  rehgious  rites  at  his  burial.     Charles, 
the  eldest  of  his  four  sons,  succeeded  to  his  father's  business, 
was  in  his  turn  excommunicated,  and  died  three  years  later  in 
similar  circumstances.     Jean  Calvin,  who  was  the  second  child, 
could    hardly    have    been    expected    to    feel    sympathetically 
inclined  towards  Church  officials.     He  was  placed  at  the  college 
of  Noyon  to  begin  his  education,  and  was  afterwards  sent  to 
Paris  to  live  with  his  uncle,  a  locksmith,  who  made  him  attend 
classes  at  the  College  de  la  Marche  and,  later  on,  at  the  College 
de  Montaigu.     At  the  age  of  nineteen  he  went  to  study  for  a 
168 


THE    DRAMA     OF     PROTESTANTISM 

law  degree  at  Orleans,  where  the  University  was  famous  for  its 
courses  in  jurisprudence.      He  was  a  diligent,   hard-working 
student  who  ate  little,  was  delicate  in  health,  and  suffered  from 
a  bad  digestion.     He  was  recognized  as  a  scholar  of  a  supple 
intellect  with  a  great  gift  for  dialectics.     When  he  had  taken  his 
law  degree  he  devoted  himself  to  the  study  of  Greek  literature 
and  developed  a  strong  taste  for  literary  subjects.   He  even  aban- 
doned the  law,  and  gave  himself  up  entirely  to  the  humanities, 
returning  to  Paris  at  the  age  of  twenty-two.     In  the  following 
year  (1532),  twelve  months  after  the  death  of  his  father,  he 
brought   out   his   first   book,    a  commentary  on   Seneca's   De 
Clementia.      This  reduced  him  to  poverty,  for  he  was  not  rich 
and  the   printing  of  his   work  was   expensive.     The   feelings 
aroused  in  his  heart  by  his  family's  misfortunes  and  his  own 
studies  had  already  prepared  the  ground,  and  he  began  to  show 
a  sympathetic  curiosity  about  Lutheran  ideas.     He  became  a 
constant  visitor  at  the  house  of  one  of  his  fellow-townsmen, 
a  rich  merchant  of  the  Rue  Saint-Martin,  named  fitienne  de 
la  Forge,  who  habitually  entertained  a  whole  band  of  heretical 
friends,   among  them   Gerard  Roussel.     The   development   of 
Calvin's  faith  was  slow  and  gradual  and  he  passed  through 
periods  of  great  difficulty.     The   blood-stained  year  of  1535 
proved  fatal  to  the  band  of  the  Rue  Saint-Martin,     fitienne  de 
la  Forge  was  denounced  and  arrested,  and  on  February  16  was 
sent  to  the  stake.     His  friends  were  hounded  down,  and  Calvin 
was  obliged  to  flee  in  haste.     He  wandered  about,  going  to 
Nerac,  to  Poitiers,  and  to  Noyon,  where  he  was  recognized, 
arrested,  and  thrown  into  prison.     Upon  his  release  he  crossed 
the  frontier  and  reached  Bale,  where  he  finished  a  book  on 
religion  which  was  destined  to  enjoy  considerable  success — 
his  Christiance  Religionis  Institutio,  printed  in  1536.     Finally, 
in  this  same  year,  at  the  age  of  twenty-seven,  he  arrived  at 
Geneva,  as  yet  a  modest  and  obscure  young  man. 

An  ancient  town  contemporary  with  the  Romans,  Geneva 
had  had  a  turbulent  history  during  the  Middle  Ages,  owing  to 
Calvin  in  perpetual  disputes  between  its  Bishop  and  the 

Geneva.  Count,  afterwards  the  Duke  of  Savoy,  as  to  the 

lordship  of  its  territory.     In  opposition  to  both  competitors, 
the  inhabitants  had  ended  by  declaring  that  they  belonged  to 

169 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

neither,  but  were  citizens  of  a  free  imperial  town  that  ought 
to  be  independent.  The  partisans  of  this  theory  were  called 
"  the  Libertines."  This  party  endeavoured  to  gain  support 
from  outside.  They  succeeded,  and  formed  a  confederation 
with  the  cantons  of  Freiburg  and  Berne,  whence  arose  the 
appellation  Eidgenossen,  the  German  word  for  confederates, 
and  the  origin  of  the  term  Huguenots ;  eventually,  having 
driven  out  the  supporters  of  the  Duke  of  Savoy — the  Bishop's 
adherents  had  long  since  disappeared — they  remained  masters 
of  the  situation.  Geneva  became  a  kind  of  free  republic 
governed  by  a  grand  council  under  the  vague  suzerainty  of  the 
Emperor  of  Germany.  Lutheran  ideas  were  favourably  received 
there  and  developed  without  much  difficulty.  At  one  moment 
they  met  with  some  opposition,  but  the  grand  council  decided 
to  allow  the  citizens  absolute  freedom  of  belief.  Whereupon 
heresy  grew  so  rapidly  that  it  ended  by  establishing  a  majority 
in  the  city.  At  this  juncture,  a  phenomenon  occurred 
which,  as  we  shall  see  later,  was  repeated  in  France.  The 
Protestants,  having  acquired  the  ascendency,  decided  that 
it  was  impossible  to  tolerate  "  error,  idolatry,  and  superstition 
in  their  midst,"  and  that  it  behoved  them  to  "  shake  off  the 
yoke  of  the  Roman  Antichrist."  Accordingly,  on  August  27, 
1535,  the  grand  council  forbade  the  exercise  of  the  Catholic 
religion  in  Geneva.  The  images  and  crucifixes  in  the  churches 
were  thrown  down,  the  altars  overturned,  and  the  priests 
banished.  From  this  time  forth  Geneva  became  the  sanctuary 
of  the  new  creed  and  a  refuge  for  the  fugitives  from  persecution 
in  France,  who  speedily  flocked  to  its  gates.  One  of  the  first 
of  these  was  Guillaume  Farel,  whose  gift  of  eloquence  quickly 
won  him  a  position  of  considerable  influence  in  Geneva  ;  and 
in  the  following  year,  1536,  Calvin  reached  the  city. 

As  he  was  obliged  to  work  for  his  living,  Calvin  asked  and 
obtained  permission  to  give  lessons  in  theology.  He  was 
favourably  received  on  account  of  his  remarkable  precision, 
conciseness,  and  lucidity,  and  was  admired  for  his  learning, 
the  thoroughness  of  his  methods,  and  a  certain  inflexibility  of 
character.  It  was  not  long  before  he  was  given  leave  to  exercise 
the  functions  of  a  pastor.  His  success  was  rapid,  and  he  speedily 
won  a  position  of  incontestable  authority.  Shortly  after  this 
170 


THE    DRAMA     OF    PROTESTANTISM 

the  pastors  had  a  meeting  to  consider  the  question  of  compihng 
a  catechism,  and  Calvin  was  entrusted  with  this  duty.  Thanks 
to  the  neophyte  zeal  of  the  Protestants  in  the  city,  the  pastors' 
assembly  possessed  an  extraordinary  moral  influence,  capable 
even  of  checkmating  the  political  powers  of  the  grand  council. 
In  their  religious  enthusiasm,  the  pastors  decided  that  with 
the  view  of  making  the  morals  of  Geneva  compatible  with  the 
Christian  faith,  disciplinary  regulations  should  be  drawn  up 
to  compel  the  inhabitants  to  practise  virtue  and  eschew  vice 
under  threat  of  severe  penalties.  This  amounted  to  the  institu- 
tion of  ecclesiastical  government.  Calvin  drafted  the  regula- 
tions, which  were  extremely  severe.  A  number  of  citizens  at 
once  lodged  a  vehement  protest  against  this  invasion  of  matters 
of  conscience  in  the  domain  of  politics.  A  party  was  organized 
which  claimed  to  defend  the  old  families  of  Geneva,  who  were 
anxious  to  protect  the  liberties  of  the  city,  as  well  as  the  in- 
dependence of  the  body  politic  against  the  "  strangers,"  as 
they  called  them.  The  pastoral  body  retaliated  by  dubbing 
their  adversaries  "  Libertines,"  and  a  fierce  conflict  was  in- 
augurated. The  Libertines  gained  the  upper  hand  and  drove 
out  the  pastors.  Calvin,  who  thus  became  an  exile  once  more, 
sought  refuge  in  Strasburg,  where  he  opened  a  fresh  theological 
class  in  order  to  earn  his  livelihood,  for  he  was  in  great  distress 
and  was  obliged  to  sell  his  library  and  take  in  boarders.  But 
in  the  meanwhile  a  revolution  was  changing  the  aspect  of  affairs 
in  Geneva.  Aggravated  by  the  excesses  of  the  Libertines,  the 
people  rebelled  and  returned  a  majority  in  favour  of  the  pastoral 
party,  now  called  the  "  Evangelicals."  Calvin  was  recalled 
and  returned  on  September  13,  1541.  This  time  the  pastors 
Organization  had  definitively  gained  the  upper  hand  ;  they 
oJ  Calvinism,  proceeded  to  enforce  their  disciplinary  regula- 
tions and,  at  the  instigation  of  Calvin,  reorganized  the  city 
in  conformity  with  his  ideas.  The  functions  of  teaching  the 
doctrines  of  the  new  faith  and  of  administering  the  sacra- 
ments were  assigned  to  the  ministers.  Twelve  elected 
elders  and  the  ministers  together  formed  a  consistory  which 
kept  watch  and  ward  over  the  morals  of  the  community, 
punished  the  guilty  by  reprimands,  censures,  and  excommunica- 
tions, and  in  cases  requiring  corporeal  chastisement,  summoned 

171 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

the   delinquents    before   the   grand   council.     All   luxury   was 
prohibited  ;  festivals  were  forbidden,  rejoicings  were  restricted, 
every  man's  opinions  were  scrutinized,  and  life  was  made  sad 
and  austere.     Under  the  guidance  of  Calvin,  whose  authority 
daily  increased,  and  who  gradually  succeeded  in  imposing  his 
ideas  upon  the  rest  of  his  colleagues,  religion  assumed  a  severe 
and  forbidding  aspect.     All  ceremonies  were  abolished  ;  sermons, 
prayers,  the  reading  of  the  Gospel,  and  the  singing  of  the  Psalms 
were  considered  sufficient.     Baptism  and  the  Lord's  Supper 
being  the  only  sacraments  mentioned  in  the  New  Testament, 
Calvin  preserved  them,  but  the  bread  and  wine  of  the  Lord's 
Supper  were  regarded  merely  as  signs  or  symbols  and  not,  as 
in  the  Catholic  Church,  as  the  actual  body  and  blood  of  Christ. 
By  his  sermons,  and  by  his  continual  courses  of  theology,  which 
soon  became  so  famous  that  people  from  far  and  wide  came  to 
hear  him,   Calvin  defined  and  circumscribed  the  faith.     His 
fame  spread  through  the  length  and  breadth  of  France,  and 
letters  asking  for  instructions  reached  him  from  every  quarter. 
With  indefatigable  zeal  and  prodigious  activity,  he  carried  on 
a  world-wide  correspondence,   encouraging  and  fortifying  his 
followers,   recommending  the  foundation  of  churches  on  the 
model  of  the  Church  of  Geneva,  and  upholding  the  persecuted, 
all  in  the  language  which  made  the  success  of  his  Institutio 
ChristiancB — a  style  supple,  concise,  firm,  and  lucid,  which  places 
him  in  the  ranks  of  the  best  French  writers.     Crowds  flocked 
to  his  side.     The  population  of  Geneva,  which  in  1543  had 
numbered  13,000,  rose  in  1550  to  20,000.     Calvin  instructed 
the  ministers  and  then  sent  them  forth  to  preach  the  Gospel ; 
Geneva  became  the  seminary  and  the  "  Rome  "  of  Protestantism. 
But  whilst  he  defined  the  doctrines  of  Protestantism,  Calvin 
was  also  determined  to  fix  them  categorically.     With  an  extra- 
ordinary  lack   of    consistency,   the  reformer,  who  had  taken 
such  liberties  in  connexion  with  Catholic  doctrines,  would  not 
allow  anyone  to  discuss  his  creed.     He  used  to  terminate  the 
prayer  with  which  he  ended  his  sermons  by  asking  God  to 
preserve  His  Church  from  "  all  false  doctrine,  heresy,  and  schism, 
which  are  the  seeds  of  trouble  and  divisions  among  His  people." 
Rigid  and  merciless,  he  persecuted  all  who  differed  from  him 
with  inexorable  severity.     Sebastian  Castellio,  who  had  ventured 
172 


THE    DRAMA    OF    PROTESTANTISM 

to  dispute  the  inspiration  of  the  Song  of  Solomon,  was  driven 
from  Geneva,  and  certain  pastors  whose  opinions  did  not  seem 
above  suspicion,  or  who  were  over-bold,  were  deposed,  im- 
prisoned, or  banished.  A  certain  Spanish  doctor  of  medicine, 
named  Miguel  Serveto,  attacked  some  of  Calvin's  ideas,  to  the 
extreme  irritation  of  the  latter  ;  and  in  his  book  Christianismi 
Restitutio  Serveto  dared  to  make  certain  assertions  which  Calvin 
regarded  as  inadmissible.  Some  time  after  this  the  Spanish 
doctor  rashly  supposed  that  it  would  be  safe  for  him  to  pass 
through  Geneva  ;  he  was  arrested,  tried,  and  burnt  there  on 
October  27,  1553.  Calvin  was  bitterly  reproached  with  the 
death  of  this  man,  and  in  order  to  defend  himself  he  wrote  in 
1554  his  Declaration  oil  il  est  montre  quHl  est  licite  de  punir  les 
Mritiques.  And,  indeed,  the  Protestants,  true  children  of  their 
age,  after  having  repudiated  the  authority  of  the  Catholic 
Church,  continued  to  profess  the  intolerant  opinions  prevalent 
in  their  time.  Melancthon  agreed  with  Calvin  ;  and  Theodore 
Beza  published  in  1554  his  De  hcereticis  a  civili  magistratu 
puniendis  libellus,  in  which  he  maintained  that  liberty  should 
be  allowed  to  truth,  but  denied  to  error,  the  devotees  of  which 
should  be  punished — a  statement  which  was  the  very  theory 
of  the  Inquisition  itself.  Castellio  was  the  first  to  proclaim  the 
necessity  of  liberty  of  conscience,  and  to  maintain  that  ideas 
should  be  defended  by  ideas  and  not  by  the  sword ;  but  it  was 
some  time  before  this  opinion  was  accepted  by  the  reformers. 

His  implacable  spirit,  supported  by  prodigious  activity, 
indefatigable  energy,  and  lofty  unbending  faith,  is  sufficient 
to  account  for  the  immense  authority  wielded  by  the  founder 
of  Calvinism.  He  wore  himself  into  his  grave.  Exhausted 
by  headaches  and  indigestion,  gout,  gravel,  and  asthma,  his 
emaciated  body  and  hollow  cheeks  revealing  the  weakness  of 
his  constitution,  Calvin's  life  flickered  out  on  May  27,  1564. 
He  was  fifty-five  years  old,  and  he  died  in  poverty. 

Thus  it  was  at  the  instigation  of  Geneva  and  following  in 
her  footsteps  that  the  Lutheran  bodies  who  had  met  together 
First  Reformed  ^^^^^  ^^^  there  secretly  in  France,  organized  them- 
Church  in  selves  into  churches.     In  September,  1555,  there 

Paris,  1555.  arrived  in  Paris  a  minister  from  Geneva,  named 
La  Riviere,  who  gathered  together  a  certain  number  of  converts 

173 


CENTURY    OF   THE    RENAISSANCE 

to  the  new  faith  in  a  house  in  the  Pre-aux-Cleres.  He  was 
elected  pastor,  and  had  a  consistory  of  elders  nominated,  thus 
founding  the  first  reformed  Church  in  Paris.  Churches  of  a 
similar  kind  were  afterwards  created  at  Meaux,  Angers,  Poitiers, 
Agen,  Bourges,  Blois,  and  Tours,  and  at  the  end  of  two  or  three 
years,  some  twenty  of  them  were  in  existence.  Ministers  from 
Geneva  arrived  in  the  towns  all  over  the  country,  but  if  they 
did  not  find  enough  followers,  or  if,  on  account  of  the  hostility 
of  the  people,  secret  meetings  were  impracticable,  they  went 
away.  They  preached  and  prepared  the  ground,  and,  as  in 
Geneva,  they  read  aloud  from  the  Scriptures,  prayed,  exhorted 
their  congregations,  and  sang  psalms.  When  once  it  had  been 
organized,  the  Church  in  Paris  in  its  turn  sent  out  ministers 
in  all  directions.  These  men,  in  concert  with  the  assemblies, 
nominated  the  elders  of  the  consistories,  and  these  latter  collected 
the  money  for  the  pastor's  salary  and  for  almsgiving.  Advice 
and  directions  were  asked  from  Geneva.  Calvin  had  issued 
orders  that  the  pastors  should  be  well  versed  in  theology,  that 
scandals  should  be  energetically  suppressed,  and  that  the  lives 
of  the  faithful  should  be  narrowly  scrutinized.  And  thus, 
little  by  little,  the  organization  of  Geneva  spread  throughout 
the  whole  of  France.  Soranzo  wrote  in  1558  that  the  Protes- 
tants numbered  400,000.  They  were  now  called  "  the  Calvin- 
ists,"  and  their  numbers  became  so  large  that  it  was  thought 
necessary  to  complete  their  organization  by  securing  the  unity 
of  all  the  churches  among  themselves.  Variations  existed  in 
the  doctrines  that  were  taught,  and,  in  conformity  with  Calvin's 
ideas,  it  was  thought  necessary  to  discipline  the  teaching  and 
come  to  some  agreement  as  to  a  general  formulary.  This  led 
The  first  to  the  meeting  in  Paris  in  May,  1559,  of  the  first 

Synod  in  Paris,  national  Synod,  an  imitation  of  the  Councils  of 
1559.  the  Catholic  Church.     This  Synod,  at  which  each 

church  was  represented  by  its  pastor  and  its  elders,  sat  in  the 
Faubourg  Saint-Germain  and  lasted  for  four  days  in  the  midst 
of  perils  and  dangers  without  number.  It  adopted  a  formulary, 
the  text  of  which  was  inspired  by  Calvin,  and  then  proceeded 
to  the  regulation  of  discipline.  All  the  churches  were  to  be 
equal  among  themselves,  and  no  one  of  them  was  to  claim 
primacy  ;  in  every  church  the  pastors  were  to  be  equal ;  the 
174 


THE    DRAMA    OF    PROTESTANTISM 

representatives  of  several  churches  in  the  same  neighbourhood 
were  to  meet  together  in  assembUes  called  colloquies  ;  the 
representatives  of  churches  in  the  same  province  were  to  meet 
once  a  year  in  provincial  synods,  and  at  the  head  of  all  was 
to  stand  the  national  synod.  The  Synod  of  1559,  which  com- 
pleted the  foundation  of  the  Protestant  churches  in  France, 
formed  the  starting-point  for  the  triumphant  rise  of  Calvinism, 
which  spread  so  rapidly  that  in  1561  there  were  over  2000 
reformed  churches  in  the  country.  It  was  this  swift  and 
unexpected  growth  which  so  alarmedthe  government  of  Henry  II 
and  caused  that  monarch  such  profound  anxiety.  And  when 
he  died,  the  future  looked  dark  and  disquieting  indeed  to  the 
ministers  of  his  successor. 

This  successor,  Francis  II,  was  a  delicate  and  unhealthy 
boy  of  fifteen  and  a  half.  According  to  Regnier  de  la  Planche, 
Francis  II,  he  had  "  a  pale,  puffy  face  "  covered  with  pimples 
1559-1560.  and  blotches  ;  he  suffered  from  some  afiection  of 
the  nose — probably  adenoids — and  was,  moreover,  morose, 
taciturn,  and  obstinate.  He  was  destined  to  reign  only  a  few 
months,  and  his  personality  is  a  negligible  quantity  in  history. 
He  had  been  married  to  the  charming  Mary  Stuart,  and  showed 
a  tender  affection  for  his  "  little  wife."  He  passed  his  time 
by  her  side  ;  they  were  delightful  to  see,  as  they  fondled  each 
other  and  went  apart  from  their  companions  to  whisper  un- 
important secrets. 

The  Guises,  taking  advantage  of  their  position  as  the  Queen's 
uncles,  at  once  seized  the  reins  of  power.  Duke  Francis  had 
in  his  favour  his  brilliant  military  exploits  and  the  prestige 
of  his  popularity  and  glory.  His  brother,  the  Cardinal  of 
Lorraine,  was  already  in  the  government  ;  both  were  powerful, 
fiery,  and  autocratic  spirits.  The  Cardinal  had  everything 
connected  with  the  finances  and  internal  administration  of  the 
country  in  his  hands.  He  was  extremely  clever,  and  a  good 
speaker,  and  brought  great  application  to  bear  upon  all  he  did 
Grave  in  demeanour  and  dignified  in  person,  he  possessed  much 
knowledge,  more  especially  in  the  domain  of  theology.  But 
he  was  treacherous,  miserly,  and  violent  in  temper  He 
directed  everything,  his  brother,  the  Duke,  confining  himself 
to  military  matters.     It  was  impossible  to  resist  them  !     Their 

175 


CENTURY    OF   THE    RENAISSANCE 

niece,  the  Queen,  Mary  Stuart,  was  on  their  side,  and  conse- 
quently the  King  himself.  They  were  in  possession  of  practical 
power,  and  they  made  their  authority  felt  harshly,  with  the 
result  that  everybody  stood  in  awe  of  them.  Catherine  de' 
Medici,  the  King's  mother,  finding  that  she  was  altogether 
powerless,  adopted  a  cautious  attitude  of  circumspection  and 
reserve.  She  was  now  forty  ;  she  felt  herself  to  be  a  woman 
of  capacity,  who  could  rule  if  she  had  the  chance,  and  over  her 
son,  the  new  King,  she  maintained  an  ascendency  which  made 
him  fear  and  respect  her.  But  political  events  were  for  the 
moment  too  strong  for  her,  and  matters  had  so  fallen  out  that 
she  had  no  alternative  but  to  wait  in  silence.  Constable  Mont- 
morency held  aloof.  The  Bourbons  and  the  Chatillons  remained. 
For  the  Guises,  who  were  half  foreigners,  to  be  everything, 
whilst  the  Bourbons,  who  were  princes  of  the  blood,  were 
ciphers,  was  intolerable.  But  at  first  the  notorious  sympathy 
of  the  King  of  Navarre  and  his  family  for  the  Reformation 
placed  them,  as  well  as  the  Chatillons,  in  a  particularly  false 
position.  The  Guises  profited  by  the  state  of  affairs  to  make  the 
situation  of  their  rivals  even  worse.  They  resolutely  isolated 
the  Chatillon-Bourbon  group  from  Court,  and  on  pretence  of 
religious  expediency,  excluded  them  from  the  councils  of  state. 
Thus  the  stage  was  left  free  for  themselves.  The  Bourbons 
and  the  Chatillons  gathered  together  at  Vendome  in  order  to 
see  what  could  be  done.  Conde,  who  was  hot-tempered  and 
impatient,  supported  by  the  Vidame  de  Chartres,  proposed 
having  recourse  to  arms.  Coligny,  calmer  and  more  cautious, 
and  naturally  straightforward  and  honest,  was  in  favour  of 
more  conciliatory  methods  and  suggested  that  they  should 
appeal  to  Catherine  de'  Medici  against  the  unauthorized  usurpa- 
tion of  power  by  the  Guises.  The  meeting  voted  in  favour  of 
this  resolution,  and  Antoine,  King  of  Navarre,  was  chosen  to 
represent  the  case  to  the  Queen  Mother.  Antoine  was  a  quiet, 
irresponsible  person,  whose  thin  face,  darkened  by  a  short, 
sparse  beard,  and  poorly  illuminated  by  a  pair  of  shifty  eyes, 
masked  a  mediocre  character,  deficient  in  courage.  He  came 
to  Court,  where  he  had  a  very  bad  reception.  Francis  II  kept 
him  waiting  two  days  for  an  audience,  and  when  he  finally 
granted  it,  treated  him,  in  obedience  to  his  uncles'  instructions, 
176 


THE    DRAMA    OF    PROTESTANTISM 

with  marked  coldness.  When,  disconcerted  by  this  treatment, 
Antoine  addressed  himself  to  Catherine  de'  Medici,  she  gave 
him  evasive  replies,  telling  him  that  he  must  be  patient,  that 
in  time  things  would  arrange  themselves,  and  that  later  on  the 
Bourbons  would  return  to  their  legitimate  position  of  power 
about  the  King's  person.  The  King  of  Navarre,  who  by  this 
time  was  thoroughly  disgusted  with  his  mission,  came  to  the 
conclusion  that  he  must  be  contented  with  these  fair  words. 
Moreover,  there  was  no  one  else  to  whom  he  could  turn,  as  the 
Guises  had  secured  the  King's  immediate  circle  by  keeping  him 
under  the  constant  surveillance  of  their  own  friends  and  sup- 
porters, notably,  the  Chancellor  Olivier,  Marshal  de  Saint- 
Andre,  and  Marshal  Brissac.  By  thus  isolating  the  Bourbon- 
Chatillon  faction  on  account  of  their  Calvinistic  proclivities, 
as  well  as  with  the  object  of  keeping  the  rivals  of  their  power 
out  of  the  way,  the  Guises  threw  them  into  the  arms  of  the 
Protestants,  and  ended  by  providing  the  latter  with  leaders. 

Meanwhile,  from  all  quarters  news  came  to  Paris  of  the 
daily  increasing  audacity  of  the  Reformers.  Thus  in  one  small 
Growth  and  southern  town,  where  hitherto  the  ministers  who 
progress  of  came  from  Geneva  had  only  been  able  to  preach 
Protestantism,  by  night  hidden  away  in  private  houses,  they  now 
dared  to  hold  public  meetings  in  broad  daylight  in  the  schools. 
If  the  magistrates  hastened  to  the  spot,  with  the  object  of 
reporting  them,  altercations  ensued,  and  the  ministers  gave 
explanations,  which,  in  the  end,  left  the  King's  officials  undecided 
what  course  to  pursue.  In  other  places,  too,  meetings  were 
held  with  perfect  freedom,  and  the  number  of  Calvinists  grew 
from  day  to  day  with  astonishing  rapidity.  "  The  conflagration 
is  spreading  everywhere,"  wrote  Soriano,  and  he  was  perfectly 
right.  The  Guises,  ardent  Catholics — especially  the  Cardinal 
of  Lorraine,  a  man  of  uncompromising  ideas — were  also,  as 
heads  of  the  Government,  devotees  like  Francis  I  of  the  principle 
of  authority,  which  was  compromised  by  the  very  existence 
of  heresy.  Naturally  combative,  energetic,  and  resolute,  they 
revived  and  exaggerated  the  repressive  policy  of  Henry  II. 

A  series  of  merciless  measures  was  the  result.  Edicts  were 
published  throughout  the  country  commanding  the  immediate 
imprisonment  of  anyone  known  to  be  a  Calvinist.     Orders  were 

M  177 


CENTURY    OF     THE    RENAISSANCE 

sent  to  the  judifical  commission  charged  with  the  trial  of  Anne 
du  Bourg  to  terminate  the  matter.  Du  Bourg  had  tried 
dilatory  methods  of  procedure,  appealing  from  one  jm'isdiction 
to  another,  maintaining  that  as  a  cleric  he  was  entitled  to  appear 
before  the  episcopal  judge  in  the  Bishop's  court,  and  raising 
an  agitation  through  his  friends.  The  trial  was  hastily  con- 
cluded, but  passions  had  been  roused  to  such  a  pitch  of  excite- 
ment that  one  of  the  judges,  the  President  Minard,  was  assas- 
inated  by  a  Calvinist.  In  the  end  du  Bourg  was  condemned 
to  death  and  executed.  The  Protestants  called  his  death  "  a 
triumph,"  and  the  murder  of  Minard  "  the  judgment  of  God." 

The  King's  procurators,  magistrates  of  all  ranks  and  callings, 
bailiffs  and  sergeants  bestirred  themselves  in  the  provinces 
with  feverish  activity.  Everywhere  there  was  a  constant 
succession  of  citations,  arrests,  and  imprisonments.  The  year 
1560  was  particularly  calamitous.  "It  is  impossible,"  wrote 
Hubert  Languet,  "  for  this  to  go  on  any  longer.  The  prisons 
are  full !  " 

The  Protestants,  however,  who  now  possessed  a  regular 
organization,  with  colloquies  and  synods,  were  in  a  position  to 
combine  and  offer  resistance,  or  at  least  to  demand  some  abate- 
ment of  the  draconian  measures  with  which  they  were  being 
overwhelmed.  It  was  useless  for  them  to  approach  the  King 
or  the  Guises,  and,  like  the  Bourbons  and  the  Chatillons,  they 
determined  to  address  themselves  to  Catherine  de'  Medici.  The 
Queen  Mother  made  no  sign.  Possibly,  she  was  not  so  rigid 
in  her  opinions  as  those  who  held  the  reins  of  government ; 
she  represented  a  latent  influence,  and  at  least  exercised  some 
moral  authority.  Unfortunately,  however,  she  was  powerless, 
and  once  again,  as  in  the  case  of  the  King  of  Navarre,  she 
maintained  an  attitude  of  reserve.  In  her  reply  she  confined 
herself  to  advising  the  Protestants  to  remain  calm  and  to  say 
nothing,  adding  a  few  vague  words  of  toleration  and  peace. 

Thereupon  the  Calvinists,  the  most  fiery  among  whom, 
realizing  the  strength  of  their  movement,  had  come  to  the 
The  Calvinists  conclusion  that  they  had  at  least  the  right  to 
appeal  to  demand  liberty  to  meet  and  to  preach,  turned 

the  Bourbons,  to  the  Bourbon-Chatillon  faction.  After  all, 
were  they  not  princes  and  the  highest  nobility  in  the  kingdom  ? 
178 


THE    DRAMA    OF    PROTESTANTISM 

How  could  they  allow  foreigners  like  the  Lorraines  to  seize  the 
government,  drive  them  from  Court,  and  use  the  power  thus 
usurped  to  inflict  intolerable  persecution  upon  them,  their 
friends,  and  their  creed  ?  The  Bourbons  must  be  induced  to 
return  to  Court,  to  drive  out  the  Guises,  and  take  their  place. 
Once  masters  of  the  Government,  they  would  put  an  end  to 
persecution,  and  grant  the  Calvinists  the  liberty  they  demanded. 

But  they  were  once  more  unfortunate  in  having  to  deal 
with  a  man  like  the  King  of  Navarre,  who  was  not  great  enough 
for  the  part  they  wished  him  to  play.  The  nobility  liked  him 
because  he  was  cordial,  good-natured,  and,  though  he  was  not 
rich,  generous,  open  and  simple  "  in  the  true  French  style," 
says  Giovanni  Michiel,  also  gallant  enough  in  battle  though  a 
mediocre  general.  But  his  was  a  soft  nature,  devoid  of  daring. 
He  recoiled  in  terror.  In  vain  did  they  try  to  act  upon  him 
by  means  of  his  wife,  the  intelligent  Jeanne  d'Albret,  who, 
unlike  her  husband,  was  fiery  and  determined.  Nothing  came 
of  it,  and  he  refused  his  help.  No  other  champion  was  to  be 
found.  His  brother,  the  Prince  of  Conde,  would  have  been 
more  ambitious  and  active,  but  he  lacked  the  solid  qualities 
necessary  for  a  leader,  and,  moreover,  as  he  was  a  younger 
brother,  it  would  have  been  difficult  for  him  to  undertake  a 
task  refused  by  his  senior.  As  for  the  Chatillons,  they  had  not 
the  requisite  authority. 

The  Protestant  ministers,  finding  they  could  get  nothing 
from  the  persons  they  had  relied  on,  then  decided  to  fight  their 
Protestant  ^^^  battles  with  the  only  weapon  they  possessed 
Press  cam-  — the  Press.  They  multiplied  their  pamphlets 
paign.  and  entered  upon  a  campaign  of   eloquent  and 

inflammatory  polemics.  "  The  blood  of  the  just  crieth 
aloud,"  wrote  La  Planche,  "  and  God  useth  persecution  as 
bellows  to  fan  the  flame  of  His  Word !  "  They  made  a 
passionate  attack  upon  the  Guises,  denouncing  their  tyranny 
and  their  unjust  usurpation  of  the  royal  power,  and  anathema- 
tizing their  ambitions.  What  was  their  goal,  they  asked,  but 
the  appropriation  of  the  Crown,  the  deposition  of  the  King, 
and  the  usurpation  of  the  throne  by  one  of  themselves  ? 
After  having  driven  away  the  princes  of  the  blood,  they  aimed 
at  nothing  less  than   their   destruction   in  order   that   every 

17.9 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

obstacle  might  be  removed  from  their  path.  And  in  the  mean- 
while they  were  ruining  the  finances,  corrupting  the  Court,  and 
sowing  the  seeds  of  hatred  on  every  side.  Now  in  connexion 
with  the  various  points  just  enumerated  the  complaints  of  the 
Protestants  found  an  echo  in  the  breasts  of  others  besides 
heretics. 

The  harsh  and  autocratic  rule  of  the  Guises  had  not  been 
established  without  arousing  a  certain  amount  of  discontent 
even  among  Catholics.  After  the  Peace  of  Cateau-Cambresis, 
in  view  of  the  financial  difficulties  of  the  situation — past  debts 
and  heavy  liabilities  to  be  met — the  Guises  had  decided  to 
make  substantial  economies.  They  had  reduced  the  expenses 
of  the  Court,  cut  down  the  army  considerably,  and  restricted 
pensions.  These  measures  had  called  forth  loud  protestations 
from  their  victims.  A  large  number  of  the  nobility  who  had 
but  slender  fortunes  and  had  hitherto  made  a  livelihood  by 
war,  were  deprived  of  their  means  of  subsistence.  Arrears  of 
pay  were  due  to  them,  and  they  laid  claim  to  them.  The 
straitened  condition  of  the  Exchequer  made  it  impossible  to 
satisfy  them,  but  they  insisted  and  agitated.  The  Cardinal  of 
Lorraine  was  not  the  man  to  tolerate  such  methods  of  intimida- 
tion and  showed  himself  hard  and  overbearing.  Even  under 
ordinary  circumstances,  says  Brantome,  "  he  was  extremely 
insolent  and  short-sighted,  having  no  respect  for  persons,  and 
showing  them  no  consideration  !  "  A  fierce  animosity  was 
kindled  against  him  and  his  brother.  The  refusals  were  at- 
tributed not  to  the  penury  of  the  Exchequer,  but  to  the  avarice 
of  the  Cardinal,  and  loud  murmurs  were  heard  on  all  sides. 
Lorraine  imagined  that  he  could  close  people's  mouths  by  holding 
out  the  threat  of  the  gibbet  for  all  grumblers,  which  did  not 
tend  to  smooth  matters.  Thus  there  was  a  strong  party  among 
the  nobles  extremely  hostile  to  the  government  of  the  Guises. 
The  arguments  of  the  Protestants  went  home,  and  a  large 
heterogeneous  political  opposition  was  formed.  From  this 
opposition  the  elements  of  that  strange  enterprise  called  the 
Conspiracy  of  Amboise  were  recruited. 

A  certain  gentleman  of  obscure  origin,  a  native  of  Perigord, 
named  Francois  de  Barry,  Sieur  de  la  Renaudie,  was  at  this 
time  roaming  about  the  world.  He  had  come  into  conflict 
180 


THE    DRAMA    OF    PROTESTANTISM 

with  the  judicial  authorities  in  the  past,  had  been  compro- 
mised in  a  case  against  du  Tiliet,  condemned  for  forgery  and 
The  Con-  ^^r  uttering  a  forgery,  and  had  been  compelled  to 

spiracy  o£  cross  the  frontier.   He  took  refuge  in  Switzerland 

Amboise,  1560.  and  became  a  Calvinist.  His  family  had  ben^ 
unfortunate,  and  one  of  his  brothers-in-law  had  been  sent  to 
prison  by  the  Guises.  He  wandered  about  from  town  to  town 
until  the  idea  of  attempting  to  wrest  the  power  by  force  from 
the  House  of  Lorraine  and  give  it  to  the  Bourbons  germinated 
in  his  brain.  On  the  part  of  this  insignificant  exile  the  notion 
was  little  short  of  madness.  However,  he  confided  his  scheme 
to  some  Calvinist  pastors,  and  even  to  Calvin  himself.  The 
pastors  replied  vaguely  that  even  if  it  were  wrong  to  make  any 
attempt  against  the  King  himself,  no  doubt  it  might  be  allowable 
to  overthrow  a  tyranny  of  usurpers.  They  did  not  attach  much 
importance  to  La  Renaudie's  proposals,  and  Calvin,  upon  being 
pressed,  avowed  his  disapproval  of  the  idea.  However,  it 
became  more  and  more  firmly  rooted  in  the  mind  of  its  originator, 
who  returned  to  France  secretly  in  the  month  of  February,  1560. 
He  went  to  Nantes,  where  the  assizes  of  the  Parliament  of 
Brittany  were  being  held  at  the  moment  of  his  arrival.  These 
assizes  had  attracted  a  large  number  of  people,  amongst  whom 
La  Renaudie  found  some  old  friends,  Calvinist  gentlemen  like 
himself.  He  talked  to  them,  and  entirely  engrossed  by  his 
scheme,  communicated  it  to  them,  but  in  the  following  cautious 
terms.  He  proposed  that  they  should  go  in  a  body  to  the 
Court  and  present  a  petition  to  the  King  asking  him  to  allow 
members  of  the  reformed  faith  liberty  to  practise  their  religion. 
If  they  went  in  large  numbers — several  hundreds — the  demon- 
stration would  make  some  impression.  La  Renaudie's  secret 
hope,  at  which  he  merely  hinted,  was  that  if  the  manifestation 
were  only  large  enough,  a  rising  might  perhaps  be  organized, 
which,  if  it  succeeded,  might  lead  to  the  arrest  of  the  Guises. 
In  the  shape,  however,  in  which  he  represented  his  plan — as 
a  sort  of  petition — it  seemed  to  his  friends  capable  of  realization. 
It  amounted,  in  short,  to  a  respectful  and  orderly  proceeding 
which  the  King  could  not  regard  as  abnormal,  organized  with 
the  object  of  modifying  the  persecutions  from  which  all  members 
of  the  reformed  faith  suflered.     The  date  and  place  of  the 

181 


CENTURY    OF   THE    RENAISSANCE 

rendezvous  was  fixed  for  March  10  at  Blois,  where  the  Court 
was  to  be  staying.     The  main  point  was  to  ensure  that  the 
members  of  the  deputation  should  come  in  imposing  numbers. 
La  Renaudie's  friends  told  those  they  knew  about  the  plan,  and 
asked  them  to  pass  the  secret  on  in  confidence.     The  news 
spread  from  mouth  to  mouth  and  gradually  assumed  the  asp  act 
of  remonstrances  to  be  made  to  the  King  on  the  subject  of  the 
Guise  government.     From  that  moment  the  opposition  joined 
the  movement.     Among  the  crowd  which  was  making  for  Blois 
at  the  beginning  of  March  were  not  only  Calvinists,  but  also 
officers  and  discontented  soldiers  demanding  arrears  of  pay. 
Meanwhile   La   Renaudie,    still  engrossed   with  his   cherished 
project — an  attempt  at  a  coup  de  main — confided  his  secret  to 
some   of   his   most  trusty  supporters,  and  in  order  to  secure 
larger   numbers,   and  more  resolute  auxiliaries,    he    recruited 
bands  of  unemployed  soldiers,  though  without  informing  them 
of   his   intentions.      He  exhorted  his  adherents  to   keep  the 
secret  and  to  come  to  the  rendezvous  one  by  one,  or  in  very 
small  groups.     In  short,  out  of  all  the  people  who  were  on  their 
way  to  Blois  in  March,  some,  the  hired  soldiers,  did  not  know 
why  they  were    going  ;    others,  the  majority,  believed  they 
were  about  to  attend  a  mere  respectful  demonstration  ;   whilst 
an  exceedingly  small  group  were  aware  of  the  fact  that  it  was 
a  question  of  provoking  an  insurrection  at  the  last  moment. 
It  is  open  to  question  whether  the  Bourbons  and  Chatillons 
were  in  the  secret.     They  probably  knew  something  about  the 
proceedings,  but  were  ignorant   of  the  proposed  attack.     The 
whole  aifair  was  very  badly  organized.     It  was  ambiguous  and 
uncertain,  at  once  too  much  and  not  enough  of  a  secret,  shared 
by  too  many  and  too  few,  foolishly  short-sighted  and  naively 
cautious .   The  conspirators  might  have  foreseen  that  the  Govern- 
ment would  never  allow  such  a  body  of  armed  men,  arriving 
suddenly  in  so  menacing  a  fashion,  to  approach  the  King,  who 
was  always  surrounded  by  his  guards  and  well  defended. 

The  Guises  were  informed  of  the  enterprise  in  all  its  minutest 
details  by  one  of  La  Renaudie's  friends,  a  Protestant  lawyer 
named  des  Avenelles,  who  lived  in  Paris.  The  instigator  of 
the  plot  had  confided  it  to  this  man,  who  was  alarmed  at  being 
made  the  depository  of  a  secret  which  might  land  him  in  a 
182 


THE    DRAMA    OF    PROTESTANTISM 

criminal  suit  if  he  did  not  betray  it.  With  men  of  the  Lorraine 
temperament,  the  news  naturally  provoked  an  outburst  of 
fury,  the  results  of  which  were  to  become  cruelly  manifest. 

As  Blois  was  too  open  and  not  sufficiently  isolated  to  be 
securely  protected,  the  Guises  decided  to  transfer  the  Court  at 
a  moment's  notice  to  Amboise,  which  was  more  inaccessible, 
surrounded  by  high  walls,  and  easy  to  guard.  This  sudden 
change  upset  the  plans  of  the  conspirators,  and  La  Renaudie 
postponed  the  date  of  the  rendezvous  from  the  10th  to  the 
16th,  substituting  Amboise  for  Blois.  The  Government  then 
took  speedy  and  vigorous  action.  Bands  of  cavalry  were 
immediately  ordered  to  beat  the  woods  in  the  neighbourhood 
of  Amboise  as  far  as  possible,  and  to  collect  all  the  people  they 
found  in  them.  The  conspirators  arrived  singly,  one  after 
the  other,  or  else  in  small  groups,  and  they  were  accordingly 
seized  without  any  idea  of  what  was  going  on.  Some,  who 
had  clear  consciences,  offered  no  resistance.  Others,  seizing 
their  pistols,  were  attacked  and  cut  down,  whilst  a  few  succeeded 
in  making  good  their  escape.  A  certain  number,  who  were 
warned  in  time,  took  to  flight ;  but  most  of  the  unfortunate 
victims  walked  straight  into  the  trap.  On  the  morning  of 
March  20,  La  Renaudie,  feeling  somewhat  anxious,  was  making 
his  way  through  the  forest  of  Chateau  Renaud,  when  he  found 
himself  confronted  by  a  troop  of  horsemen,  commanded  by 
Monsieur  de  Pardaillan.  "  Who  goes  there  ? "  demanded 
Pardaillan.  "  Liberty  !  "  replied  La  Renaudie.  "  Long  live 
the  King  !  "  was  Pardaillan's  retort,  as  he  bore  down  upon 
La  Renaudie  and  fired  his  pistol  at  him.  The  shot  missed 
La  Renaudie,  who,  drawing  his  sword,  plunged  the  blade  into 
Pardaillan's  body  with  deadly  effect.  But  at  this  moment  one 
of  the  latter's  companions  rode  up,  shot  La  Renaudie  through 
the  head  at  close  range  with  his  pistol,  and  killed  him  on  the 
spot.  Thus  the  chief  of  the  conspiracy  disappeared  before  it 
had  so  much  as  taken  shape.  "  Never,"  said  Calvin,  "  was 
an  enterprise  so  badly  conceived  or  so  stupidly  put  into  execu- 
tion !  " 

The  news  of  the  conspiracy  aroused  a  tremendous  commotion. 
The  Guises  represented  it  in  the  light  of  a  plot  against  the 
King's  person,  got  up  by  the  heretics,  an  infamous  crime  and  an 

183 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

unutterable  outrage  !  Their  indignation  was  sincere,  not  so  much 
on  account  of  the  alleged  plot  against  Francis  II  as  by  reason 
The  Execu-  of  the  danger  they  themselves  had  run.  They 
tions  following  ended  by  believing  that  this  danger  had  been  more 
upon  it.  real  and  menacing  than  they  had  at  first  supposed, 

and  the  reaction  resulted  in  a  series  of  merciless  measures. 
Francis  of  Guise  began  by  having  himself  appointed  Lieutenant - 
General  of  the  kingdom,  which  gave  him  an  unrivalled  position 
of  authority  and  put  the  whole  army  under  his  command.  He 
then  set  about  repression  of  the  revolt.  The  cells  of  Amboise 
were  filled  with  people  who  had  been  surprised  in  the  woods. 
They  were  summarily  sentenced  and  executed  en  masse — 
hanged,  beheaded,  or  drowned.  It  was  a  pitiless  slaughter  in 
which  no  quarter  was  given.  The  Protestants  were  all  the 
more  indignant  as  the  guilt  of  the  victims  in  general  was  by 
no  means  established,  and  in  many  cases  was  certainly  venial ; 
they  accused  the  Guises  of  taking  vengeance  for  the  terror  they 
had  felt.  To  crown  all,  the  Lorraines  had  the  audacity  to 
hang  the  bodies  of  La  Renaudie  and  the  chief  conspirators  from 
the  balconies  of  the  royal  residence  itself,  facing  the  river  at 
Amboise.  The  corpses  of  all  these  gentlemen  swinging  in 
the  wind,  dried  and  withered,  in  full  view  of  the  great  bridge 
over  the  Loire,  was  a  horrible  spectacle.  Jean  d'Aubigne, 
who  chanced  to  pass  by  the  spot  with  his  son  Agrippa,  the 
future  writer,  then  a  boy  of  eight  and  a  half,  remarked  to  him 
as  he  pointed  out  the  sinister  string  of  human  heads  :  "  My 
child,  look  well  at  them  !  Your  head,  when  my  own  has  fallen, 
must  not  be  spared  in  avenging  these  honourable  leaders.  If 
you  spare  yourself,  my  curse  will  be  upon  you  !  "  And  Agrippa 
d'Aubigne  never  forgot  the  indelible  impression  made  upon  him 
by  the  terrible  sight  of  those  dangling  corpses  and  his  father's 
deep  emotion  as  he  made  him  swear  to  avenge  the  blood  of  the 
"  martyrs  !  " 

But  the  matter  did  not  end  here.  At  Court  and  through 
the  country  generally  a  rumour  spread  abroad  that  there  were 
Attempt  to  y^*  other  leaders  responsible  for  the  attempt, 
compromise  A  conspiracy  of  such  importance  could  not  have 
the  Bourbons,  been  organized  by  so  insignificant  an  individual 
as  La  Renaudie  ;  and  it  was  permissible  to  seek  the  real  instiga- 
184 


THE    DRAMA    OF    PROTESTANTISM 

tors  among  those  who  would  have  profited  by  the  success  of 
the  enterprise,  that  is  to  say,  among  the  Bourbons.  They 
were  accordingly  accused  of  having  inspired  the  plot,  and  as 
Antoine,  King  of  Navarre,  was  not  the  sort  of  man  to  have 
conceived  such  a  project,  the  Prince  of  Conde  was  marked  out 
as  the  leader  of  the  enterprise.  In  the  King's  immediate  circle, 
the  imputation  was  promptly  accepted.  It  coincided  only 
too  well  with  the  interest  the  Guises  had  in  isolating  and  ruining 
the  Bourbons. 

Conde  was  summoned  before  the  King  and  his  council  to 
offer  an  explanation.  He  was  cross-questioned  and  returned 
indignant  answers,  humiliated  at  having  suspicion  cast  upon 
him  and  being  made  to  appear  as  a  culprit  before  his  enemies. 
He  protested,  and  defied  anybody  to  produce  the  smallest  shadow 
of  evidence  that  he  had  had  anything  whatever  to  do  with  the 
matter.  He  even  ofTered  to  fight  anyone  who  maintained  that 
he  had.  The  whole  family  joined  in  his  protestations  with 
such  warmth  that  the  Calvinists,  to  whom  the  severity  of  the 
repressive  measures  had  endeared  the  victims  of  Amboise, 
considered  this  method  of  denying  all  connexion  with  the 
vanquished  somewhat  excessive,  and  accused  the  princes  of 
*'  cowardice."  The  incident  went  no  farther,  but  it  left  in  the 
breasts  of  all  concerned  a  fermentation  of  hatred  and  anger 
which  was  destined  to  bear  fruit  at  no  very  distant  date.  The 
Conspiracy  of  Amboise  was  the  first  tentative  effort,  the  fore- 
runner of  civil  war.  The  experiment  of  gathering  together  a 
crowd  of  armed  men  had  been  made.  The  sword-thrusts  and 
pistol-shots  exchanged  in  the  woods  round  the  royal  residence 
had  been  a  rehearsal,  and  the  Guises'  mistaken  policy  of  forcing 
the  Bourbons  against  their  will  into  the  ranks  of  the  rebels 
provided  the  latter  with  leaders  who,  as  princes  of  the  blood, 
satisfied  the  scruples  of  loyalists.  Finally,  the  political  question 
which  had  been  grafted  upon  the  religious  problem — the 
tyrannical  usurpation  of  power  by  strangers,  who  deserved  to  be 
driven  out — added  infuriated  partisans  to  the  opposition.  The 
two  parties,  facing  each  other  in  a  state  of  great  excitement, 
were  ready  to  come  to  blows. 

But  at  this  juncture  there  began  to  appear  between  the  two 
camps  a  certain  number  of  honest  men  who  deprecated  the 

185 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

passions  that  had  been  aroused  and  would  have  liked  to  arrange 
an  understanding  upon  a  basis  of  mutual  toleration.  They 
were  advocates  of  the  tradition  outlined  by  Francis  I — ^the 
tradition  of  conciliation  and  intelligent  good-will.  And  as  it 
happened,  just  after  the  Conspiracy  of  Amboise,  Olivier  was 
succeeded  as  Chancellor  of  France  by  a  magistrate  of  a  little 
over  fifty,  a  learned  and  dignified  man  of  great  experience  and 
high  character,  whose  "  grey  beard,  pale  face,  and  grave 
manner  "  were  very  impressive — ^the  famous  Michel  de  I'Hopital. 
His  name  in  history  stands  for  a  whole  policy.  He  kept  repeat- 
ing "  Patience  !  patience  !  "  In  his  eyes  this  was  the  guarantee 
and  condition  of  improvement.  "  Everything  will  come  right," 
was  his  assurance.  But  for  the  time  being  this  party  was  too 
small  to  have  any  influence. 

In  view  of  the  general  state  of  fermentation  the  Guises 
raised  troops  everywhere.  The  Bourbons,  exiled  from  Court, 
kept  a  disquieting  silence.  The  Protestants,  exalted  by  martyr- 
dom, had  revived  their  services  in  all  the  towns,  whilst  the 
magistrates  still  carried  out  the  severe  decrees  against  them. 
"  In  a  year's  time,"  wrote  the  King's  secretary,  Robertet,  "  the 
fire  will  be  even  more  surely  kindled  than  it  is  now."  Indeed, 
it  was  felt  that  far  from  dying  down,  passions  were  becoming 
excited  to  boiling-point,  and  that  before  very  long  a  conflict 
would  break  out.  The  peace  party  made  an  attempt  at  concilia- 
tion. They  approached  Catherine  de'  Medici,  and  induced  her 
The  Assembly  *^  demand  an  Assembly  of  Notables  to  consider 
oJ  Notables,  means  of  pacification.  The  Guises  gave  their 
1560.  consent,  and  the  assembly  met  at  Fontainebleau 

in  August,  1560.  It  was  composed  of  great  personages  in  the 
State  and  of  distinguished  members  of  the  reformed  church. 
The  Chatillons  came,  but  the  Bourbons  refused  to  appear,  and 
their  absence  did  not  pass  unheeded  by  the  Court.  At  the 
meetings,  over  which  the  King  presided,  Michel  de  I'Hopital 
spoke  eloquently  in  favour  of  peace.  Coligny,  who  possessed 
great  influence,  owing  to  the  respect  his  character  inspired — 
"  for  he  was,"  says  Brantome,  "  a  noble  knight,  a  good  man, 
wise,  mature,  prudent,  diplomatic,  brave,  critical,  judicious, 
and  a  lover  of  honour  and  virtue  " — presented  a  petition  from 
the  Calvinists  of  Normandy,  who  begged  to  be  allowed  freedom 
186 


THE    DRAMA    OF    PROTESTANTISM 

of  belief  and  liberty  to  practise  their  religion  without  let  or 
hindrance.  Coligny  added  that  he  was  in  a  position  to  collect 
over  50,000  signatures  to  the  petition.  The  Duke  of  Guise 
answered  him  by  an  irritable  speech,  declaring  that  if  Coligny 
could  collect  50,000  signatures  from  people  who  claimed 
liberty  for  Calvinism,  he  could  find  millions  against  it.  A 
discussion  ensued.  Monluc,  Bishop  of  Valence,  was  of  opinion 
that  the  States-General  should  be  summoned,  as  this  assembly 
would  carry  more  weight  than  a  mere  gathering  of  Notables, 
and  that  a  National  Council  should  be  convoked  to  settle  the 
disputed  points  in  the  Catholic  doctrines,  and,  if  possible,  to 
reform  abuses.  The  idea  of  summoning  these  two  assemblies 
seemed  to  meet  with  a  favourable  reception.  The  Cardinal 
of  Lorraine  gave  his  consent  to  the  States-General,  but  opposed 
the  Council.  In  the  end,  however,  the  proposed  resolution  was 
passed  to  the  effect  that  the  States  should  meet  in  December 
1560,  and  the  Council  in  January  1561,  unless  the  Pope  took 
the  initiative  and  summoned  a  General  Council.  Nothing  was 
decided  on  the  subject  of  Coligny's  demands,  the  consideration 
of  which  was  postponed  till  the  next  meeting.  The  moderate 
party  had  gained  the  upper  hand. 

But  everywhere  the  signs  of  impending  conflict  became 
more  menacing.  News  kept  arriving  of  sporadic  rebellions  on 
the  part  of  the  Protestants.  In  Dauphiny,  Montbrun  tried 
to  make  his  co-religionists  take  up  arms.  Normandy  was  in 
a  state  of  ferment.  Villars,  Lieutenant-General  of  Languedoc, 
said  that  he  could  no  longer  answer  for  his  province  ;  and  bands 
of  armed  men  were  reported  to  be  scouring  the  country.  The 
King  and  the  Guises  suspected  the  Bourbons,  and  above  all 
the  Prince  of  Conde,  of  instigating  these  movements,  in  prepara- 
tion for  a  general  rebellion.  Military  precautions  were  increased  ; 
recruits  were  raised,  even  in  Germany  ;  and  reinforcements 
were  sent  to  the  garrisons  in  the  towns.  It  was  arranged  that 
a  clear  explanation  should  be  demanded  from  the  Bourbons 
at  the  States-General,  and  that  if  it  were  necessary  they  should 
be  treated  with  the  utmost  rigour.  The  question  was  whether 
they  would  attend  the  States-General. 

The  place  for  the  meeting  of  the  assembly,  which  had  at 
first  been  fixed  at  Meaux,  was  changed  to  Orleans  as  being  more 

187 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

secure.  The  King  arrived  there  surrounded  by  an  imposing 
body  of  troops.  He  had  summoned  the  ban  and  rear-ban  of 
Meeting  of  *^^  nobility.  A  whole  army  surrounded  the  town, 
the  States-  the  inhabitants  of  which  had  been  disarmed. 
General  at  All  the  garrisons  along   the  route  by  which  the 

Orleans.  Bourbons  would   have  to  travel    had  been  rein- 

forced. In  the  face  of  such  precautions  the  Bourbons  were 
undecided  what  course  to  pursue.  Their  immediate  followers 
begged  them  to  remain  at  Beam  and  not  to  run  any  risk. 
Catherine  de'  Medici,  on  the  other  hand,  advised  them  to  come, 
and  offered  them  safe-conducts,  provided  only  that  they  did 
not  come  in  force,  as  the  Government  had  determined  at  once 
to  attack  any  concourse  of  people  that  seemed  the  least  sus- 
picious. After  numberless  hesitations  they  at  last  made  up 
their  minds  to  attend.  A  general  feeling  of  anxiety  had  pre- 
vailed at  Orleans,  which  was  relieved  on  hearing  this  news. 
"  The  majority  of  the  madmen,"  wrote  Francis  II  to  the 
Constable,  "  perceiving  the  path  I  am  taking,  are  drawing  in 
their  horns  a  little."  It  was  supposed  that  methods  of  intimida- 
tion had  been  successful. 

The  Bourbons  arrived  at  Orleans  a  few  days  before  the 
meeting  of  the  States-General.  They  were  frigidly  received, 
and  were  immediately  called  upon  to  give  a  categorical  explana- 
tion of  the  events  that  were  taking  place  in  the  provinces  and 
of  their  own  attitude.  The  Prince  of  Conde  retorted  angrily, 
and  exclaimed  in  great  irritation  that  he  was  the  victim  of 
infamous  calumnies  on  the  part  of  the  Guises.  If  he  had  had 
a  guilty  conscience  he  would  not  have  come  !  On  other  points 
his  answers  were  vague  and  dilatory.  Antoine  de  Bourbon 
maintained  an  attitude  of  reserve  and  indecision.  The  Govern- 
ment promptly  decided  upon  the  course  to  be  pursued.  At 
Arrest  of  the  command  of  Francis  II,  the  Prince  of  Conde 

Cond6.  was  arrested,  and  his  officers  and  secretaries  were 

thrown  into  prison.  The  King  of  Navarre,  in  deference  to  his 
rank,  was  merely  placed  under  close  supervision.  A  judicial 
commission  composed  of  magistrates  belonging  to  the  Parlia- 
ment of  Paris  and  presided  over  by  de  Thou,  the  father  of  the 
historian,  was  instructed  to  prepare  the  indictment  of  Conde 
on  a  charge  of  high  treason.  Conde,  in  his  exasperation,  kept 
188 


THE    DRAMA    OF    PROTESTANTISM 

repeating  that  he  would  settle  the  whole  matter  personally 
with  the  Guises,  his  enemies,  "  at  the  point  of  the  lance."  At 
first  he  consented  to  answer  his  judges,  but  suddenly  he  refused 
to  do  so  any  more,  and  demanded  to  be  tried  by  his  peers  before 
the  Parliament  of  Paris.  In  order  to  give  him  some  sort  of 
satisfaction  the  number  of  the  commissioners  was  increased 
by  the  addition  of  the  Knights  of  Saint  Michael,  an  order  to 
which  the  Prince  belonged,  and  on  November  26  the  tribunal 
returned  the  verdict  that  the  prisoner  was  guilty  of  treason, 
heresy,  and  conspiracy.  Michel  de  I'Hopital  refused  to  sign 
the  decree,  on  the  pretext  that  the  case  had  not  been  proved, 
as  the  judges  had  only  had  presumptive  evidence  to  act  upon. 
The  whole  proceeding  had  a  disastrous  effect.  The  Protestants 
were  indignant  at  the  fact  that  a  political  manoeuvre  had  been 
falsely  hidden  beneath  legal  forms.  The  party  in  favour  of 
toleration  deplored  an  incident  calculated  to  aggravate  matters 
rather  than  to  improve  them  ;  whilst  the  Catholics  could  find 
no  answer  to  these  protests  except  the  fact  that  an  adversary 
had  been  warned  and  that  it  was  a  fair  fight. 

It  was  in  the  midst  of  the  painful  impression  produced  by 

this  trial  that  the  members  of  the  States-General  met.     They 

Sudden  death     were  extremely  troubled  in  their  minds.     Em- 

o£  Francis  II,     boldened  by  the  success  of  their  enterprise,  the 

1580.  Guises  had  decided  to  guide  the  deliberations  of 

the  Assembly  towards  the  most  rigorous  repression  of  Calvinism. 

Their   plans   were   already   laid.     They   proposed   to   have   a 

formulary  of  the  Catholic  faith  signed  by  all  the  judges  and 

Crown  officials  of  every  rank  in  the  State,  and  even  by  all  the 

King's  subjects,  one  by  one,  parish  by  parish,  under  pain  of 

summary  arrest.     By  this  means  heresy  would  be  stamped  out, 

and  the  complete  annihilation  of  the  Bourbons  would  leave 

the  uncontested  supremacy  in  their  own  hands.     Through  the 

States -General,  which  they  had  in  their  grip,  they  would  at 

last  get  the  better  of  the  Reformation.     The  Guises  might  well 

have  thought  they  had  reached  the  pinnacle  of  their  power  and 

greatness,  when  an  event,  upon  which  they  had  not  counted, 

suddenly  cast  them  down.     Francis  II  died  after  an  illness  of 

only  a  few  days. 

Always  puny  and  ailing,  after  having  suffered  for  some  time 

189 


CENTURY    OF    THE     RENAISSANCE 

from  a  suppurating  ear,  the  unfortunate  young  King  was  seized 
with  sudden  weakness  accompanied  by  high  fever.  Every 
effort  was  made  to  save  him.  The  Cardinal  of  Lorraine  multi- 
plied prayers,  vows,  and  processions  on  his  behalf.  The  Duke 
of  Guise  flew  into  a  passion  with  the  doctors,  threatening  to 
hang  them,  and  accusing  them  of  stealing  the  King's  money. 
Francis  II  rapidly  lost  consciousness,  and  on  December  4  at 
eleven  o'clock  he  died,  according  to  one  theory,  from  the  effects 
of  an  abscess  on  the  brain  caused  by  the  suppurating  inflamma- 
tion of  the  ear  from  which  he  suffered,  and,  according  to  another, 
from  the  rupture  of  the  temple  bone,  followed  by  a  cerebral 
effusion.     Politically  his  death  meant  a  revolution. 

Sources.  Journal  (Tun  bourgeois  de  Paris  sou^  leregne  de  Frangois  7," 
ed.  Lalanne,  1854 ;  Jean  Barrillon,  Journal,  ed.  De  Vaissiere,  1897 ; 
Tommaseo,  Relations  des  ambassadeurs  vdnitiens,  1838  ;  Catherine  de 
Medicis,  Lettres,  ed.  La  Ferriere  and  Baguenault  de  Puchesse ;  Brantome, 
CEuvres  completes,  ed.  Lalanne ;  Pierre  de  la  Place,  Commentaires  de  V^tat 
de  la  religion  et  de  la  Rdpublique,  1565  ;  Regnier  de  la  Planche,  Histoire 
de  Vetat  de  France  sous  Frangois  II,  ed.  Mennechet,  1836  ;  Florimond  de 
Raymond,  Histoire  de  la  naissance,  progres  et  ddcadence  de  Vherisie  de  ce 
siecle,  1610  ;  Hubert  Languet,  Epistolce  politicce,  1646  ;  J.  Calvin,  Lettres 
frangaises,  ed.  Bonnet,  1854 ;  and,  Opera  omnia  in  the  Corpus  reformatorum, 
vol.  X  to  XX  ;  d'Aubigne,  Histoire  universelle,  ed.  de  Ruble,  1887. 

Works.  Th.  de  Beze,  Histoire  eccUsiastique  des  Eglises  reform^es  an 
royaume  de  France,  ed.  Baum  and  Cunitz,  1883  ;  Lutteroth,  De  la  reforma- 
tion en  France,  1859  ;  P.  Imbart  de  la  Tour,  Les  origines  de  la  Rdforme, 
la  France  moderne,  1905  ;  Weiss,  La  Chambre  ardente,  etude  sur  la  liberie 
de  conscience  en  France  sous  Frangois  i^''  et  Henri  II,  1889  ;  Haag,  La 
France  protestante,  10  vols.  ;  Doumergue,  Jean  Calvin,  les  hommes  et  les 
choses  de  son  temps,  1899  ;  Kampschulte,  Johann  Calvin,  seine  Kirche, 
1869  ;  Roget,  UEglise  et  VEtat  a  Geneve  depuis  la  Rijorme,  1870  ;  F. 
Buisson,  Sebastien  Castellion,  1891  ;  C.  Bouvier,  La  question  Michel  Servet, 
1908  ;  Le  P.  Maimbourg,  Histoire  du  calvinisme,  1682  ;  J.  Crespin,  Les 
actes  des  martyrs,  1565  ;  A.  de  Reumont,  La  jeunesse  de  Catherine  de 
Medicis,  translated  by  A.  Baschet,  1866  ;  Capefigue,  Catherine  de  Midicis, 
1856  ;  de  Ruble,  Antoine  de  Bourbon  et  Jeanne  d'Albret,  1882  ;  Rene  de 
Bouille,  Histoire  des  dues  de  Guise,  1849  ;  H.  Forneron,  Les  Guise  et  leur 
epoque,  1877  ;  Guillemin,  Le  Cardinal  de  Lorraine,  1847  ;  J.  Delaborde, 
Gaspard  de  Coligny,  1879  ;  Dupre-Lasale,  Michel  de  VHopital,  1875  ; 
C.  Paillard,  Additions  critiques  a  Vhistoire  de  la  conspiration  d'Amboise, 
1880  ;  Potiquet  La  maladie  et  la  morl  de  Frangois  II,  1893. 


190 


CHAPTER  VI 

BLOODSTAINED  ANARCHY.    CHARLES  IX 

Charles  IX,  1560-1574  :  Regency  of  Catherine  de'  Medici  with 
Michel  de  I'Hopital  as  her  Chancellor.  Change  of  policy  with  regard 
to  the  Protestants  ;  the  results  of  this  new  policy ;  the  Diary  of 
Faurin  of  Castres.  The  Triumvirate  of  Montmorency,  Saint- Andre, 
and  Guise  ;  resistance  of  the  Catholics .  Attempts  to  come  to  an 
understanding,  the  Colloquy  of  Poissy,  1561  ;  its  failure.  Violence 
of  men's  passions  ;  the  Massacre  of  Vassy,  1562.  First  Civil  War  : 
terrible  disorders  of  the  year  1562.  Battle  of  Dreux  ;  the  Protes- 
tants beaten,  they  fall  back  on  Orleans  ;  assassination  of  the  Duke 
of  Guise,  1563.  The  Peace  and  Edict  of  Amboise,  1563.  Travels  of 
the  Court  through  France ;  the  Conference  of  Bayonne,  1565. 
Attempt  on  the  part  of  the  Protestants  to  kidnap  the  Court,  1567. 
Second  Civil  War  ;  Battle  of  Saint-Denis,  1567  ;  Peace  of  Long- 
jumeau,  1568.  Fall  of  I'Hopital.  Third  Civil  War  ;  Battle  of  Jarnac 
won  by  the  Duke  of  Anjou,  1569  ;  death  of  Conde ;  Coligny 
becomes  the  leader  of  the  Protestants  ;  his  defeat  at  Moncontour, 
1569,  is  followed,  owing  to  the  distress  of  the  Government,  by  the 
disastrous  Peace  of  Saint-Germain,  1570.  Marriage  of  Henry  of 
Beam  to  Margaret  of  Valois  :  the  Massacre  of  Saint  Bartholomew, 
August  24,  1572.   Death  of  Charles  IX,  1574. 

FRANCIS  II,  who  passed  away  at  the  age  of  seventeen 
after  a  reign  of  one  year  and  five  months,  was  succeeded 
by  his  brother  Charles  IX,  a  child  of  between  nine  and 
ten.  He  was  at  the  time  and  continued  to  be  throughout  his 
life  an  amiable  prince,  lively,  extremely  alert,  graceful,  as  were 
Charles  IX,  all  the  members  of  the  elegant  House  of  Valois, 
1560-1574.  and  with  much  ease  of  manner.  He  was  also  a 
sportsman,  and  loved  riding,  hunting,  shooting,  and  tennis  ; 
he  had  artistic  tastes  and  tendencies,  and  took  an  interest  in 
painting  and  sculpture,  though,  on  the  other  hand,  he  hated 
study  and  business.  His  health,  which  had  been  delicate  from 
the  beginning,  betrayed  the  degeneracy  of  his  race.     He  !^ was 

191 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

tall  and  slight,  with  thin  legs,  and  was  short  of  breath.  He 
ate  and  drank  very  little,  and  was  easily  overcome  by  fatigue, 
whilst  his  pale  face  and  bowed  head  suggested  a  feeble  constitu- 
tion. Giovanni  Michiel,  the  Venetian  ambassador,  who  recog- 
nized his  generosity,  ardour,  and  intelligence,  considered  him 
handsome.  He  had  fine  eyes,  and  an  expression  that  was  by 
no  means  unpleasing,  but  the  exaggerated  angularity  of  his 
face  gave  his  protruding  mouth  a  disagreeable,  sulky  expression. 
The  personality  of  this  monarch,  who  died  in  his  twenty-fifth 
year,  had  the  qualities  and  the  defects  of  youth.  An  evil  fate 
destined  his  reign  to  be  one  of  the  most  sinister  in  French 
history,  and  this  has  sufficed  to  make  him  almost  a  detestable 
figure. 

By  the  laws  and  traditions  of  France  which  fixed  the  majority 
of  kings  at  the  age  of  fourteen,  Francis  II  had  been  accounted 
Regency  o!  ^  major  when  he  ascended  the  throne,  a  circum- 
Catherine  de'  stance  which  allowed  the  Guises  to  seize  the 
Medici.  reins  of  power  on  the  pretext  that  the  King  was 

free  to  confer  authority.  But  with  Charles  IX  the  case  was 
different.  He  was  a  minor,  and  it  was  necessary  to  have  a 
regency.  Now,  by  these  same  traditions  the  Queen-Mother 
usually  became  Regent.  Catherine  de'  Medici,  with  cha- 
racteristic promptitude  and  intelligence,  did  not  wait  for 
the  death  of  Francis  II  before  securing  the  government.  The 
Guises  had  no  legal  rights  to  maintain  ;  they  accordingly  held 
their  peace.  Princes  of  the  blood  alone — in  this  case  the 
Bourbons — had  any  claims  to  urge.  But  Catherine  came  to 
an  understanding  with  them  and  promised  them  all  they  asked  : 
Conde's  release,  and  the  admittance  of  the  King  of  Navarre 
to  the  council  and  to  a  share  in  the  government  with  the  title 
of  Lieutenant -General  of  the  Kingdom,  provided  he  made  some 
profession  of  the  Catholic  faith.  She  obtained  their  support, 
and  they  for  their  part  were  well  pleased  at  such  a  significant 
change  in  their  position.  In  order  to  prevent  them  from  wreak- 
ing vengeance  on  the  Guises,  she  insisted  on  a  reconciliation. 
She  welcomed  Montmorency,  made  herself  extremely  agreeable 
to  the  Chatillons,  and  spoke  of  toleration  for  the  Huguenots. 
In  fact  she  tried  to  be  conciliatory  to  everybody.  It  is  essential 
that  her  policy  should  be  clearly  understood. 
192 


BLOODSTAINED    ANARCHY 

As  a  woman  and  a  foreigner,  springing  from  a  family  of 
newly  enriched  merchants,  she  felt  that  she  had  no  authority. 
"  God  has  left  me  with  three  young  children,"  she  wrote  to  her 
daughter,  the  Queen  of  Spain,  "  and  a  kingdom  divided  against 
itself,  without  a  soul  in  whom  I  can  place  the  slightest  confi- 
dence." Prudence — a  quality  of  which  she  possessed  no  small 
share — counselled  her  to  act  warily,  and  to  use  soothing  and 
conciliatory  measures.  In  the  midst  of  conflicting  passions 
she  had  to  try  to  be  friendly  to  all.  She  has  been  condemned  for 
dissimulation.  But  the  position  in  which  she  was  placed,  her 
Italian  blood,  her  education,  and  her  former  habits  combined 
to  make  this  almost  inevitable.  She  had  but  a  single  object 
in  view — the  preservation  of  the  King's  authority  and  her  own. 
Rightly  or  wrongly,  she  thought  that  but  one  method  could 
secure  this  object — the  method  of  conciliation.  She  failed, 
and  has  been  accused  of  weakness  and  treachery.  Greater 
ability,  greater  luck,  or  better  conditions  enabled  Henry  IV 
to  succeed.  He  is  called  a  great  man  ;  and  yet  fundamentally 
their  two  policies  were  identical. 

Moreover,  her  own  character  predisposed  her  to  this  con- 
ciliatory attitude.  A  healthy,  robust  woman,  who  had  a 
Character  o!  large  appetite,  took  plenty  of  exercise,  and  was 
Catherine  de'  extremely  brisk  and  lively,  though  she  was  so 
Medici.  enormously  stout  that   Brantome   calls   her   "  a 

lady  of  masculine  proportions,"  she  was  now  more  kind  and 
amiable  than  ever.  Every  one  agreed  in  thinking  her  "  an 
extremely  agreeable  and  gentle  princess."  The  smile  never 
left  her  poor  plain  face  with  its  sallow  olive  complexion,  baggy 
cheeks,  and  large  goggle  eyes,  and  she  was  affable  and  modest, 
without  ever  losing  the  dignity  of  a  great  lady.  Generous  to 
the  point  of  prodigality  and  disorder,  loving  comfort,  receptions, 
and  all  the  splendour  of  a  sumptuous  Court  life,  she  was  honoured 
and  loved  by  the  courtiers  who  thronged  about  her.  Her 
greatest  joy  was  to  see  the  nobility  at  peace  enjoying  them- 
selves at  her  festivities.  But  she  was  far  too  intelligent  to  be 
deceived.  "  It  is  difficult  to  keep  up  this  farce  [the  government 
of  the  kingdom]  before  so  large  an  audience  without  displeasing 
some  one  !  "  she  wrote  disconsolately  to  the  Bishop  of  Limoges, 
her  ambassador  in  Spain.     In  public  she  assumed  a  demeanour 

N  193 


CENTURY    OF    THE     RENAISSANCE 

of  calm  self-possession.  But  Correro  declares  that  more  than 
once  he  found  her  weeping  hot  tears  in  her  own  room  over  what 
she  called  the  troubles  and  misfortunes  of  France.  What  course 
was  open  to  her  but  that  of  conciliation  ?  Did  not  reason 
agree  with  necessity  ?  Speaking  of  Protestantism  and  her 
system  of  toleration  towards  it,  she  wrote  :  "  For  twenty  or 
thirty  years  we  have  tried  cauterization  to  stamp  out  the 
contagion  of  this  evil  in  our  midst,  and  we  have  found  by 
experience  that  violent  measures  do  but  increase  it.  .  .  ." 
"  In  this  respect,"  she  added,  "  I  have  acted  as  a  woman,  the 
mother  of  a  royal  ward,  who  thought  that  mildness  was  more 
suited  to  this  disease  than  any  other  remedy."  She  realized 
her  own  powerlessness  and  the  necessities  of  the  political 
situation. 

Even  if  she  herself  had  not  felt  as  she  did,  the  man  who 
was  destined  to  be  her  most  trusted  counsellor,  the  Chancellor, 
Michel  Michel  de  I'Hopital,  would  have  imbued  her  with 

de  I'Hopital.  this  spirit.  A  cold,  dry  man,  with  a  firm,  precise 
mind,  I'Hopital  hid  behind  a  thin  bony  face,  rendered  venerable 
by  a  long  white  beard  and  illuminated  by  a  pair  of  clear  eyes 
with  a  straightforward,  penetrating  glance,  a  vigorous  intellect 
and  decided  ideas.  He  was  a  resolute  and  determined  partisan  of 
liberty  of  conscience  for  the  Protestants,  and  a  policy  of  con- 
ciliation towards  the  nobility.  He  supported,  inspired,  and 
encouraged  Catherine  de'  Medici. 

When  once  Francis  II  was  dead  and  Charles  IX  proclaimed 
King,  Catherine  de'  Medici,  in  her  capacity  as  Regent,  began 
by  bringing  the  meeting  of  the  States-General  to  a  speedy 
conclusion.  L'Hopital  attended  it  and  made  an  eloquent 
speech  during  which,  exhorting  to  toleration,  he  pronounced 
the  famous  words,  "  Let  us  do  away  with  these  diabolical  terms, 
Lutherans,  Huguenots,  and  Papists,  the  names  of  parties, 
factions,  and  seditions  ;  let  us  cling  to  the  title  of  Christians  !  " 
The  States  drew  up  their  list  of  grievances,  which  showed  a 
wide  diversity  in  the  desires  of  the  three  orders.  On  January  31, 
1561,  they  were  declared  closed,  and  as  the  corollary  demanded 
by  custom,  the  Chancellor  prevailed  upon  the  Regent  to  publish 
a  grand  ordinance,  containing  150  articles,  in  which  he  inserted 
several  of  his  own  ideas  about  reform.  Amongst  them  were 
194 


BLOODSTAINED    ANARCHY 

the  re-establishment  of  canonical  elections  in  the  Church,  which 
had  been  suppressed  by  the  Concordat,  abolition  of  the  sale 
of  judicial  offices,  Hmitation  of  the  jurisdiction  of  the  eccle- 
siastical courts,  injunctions  to  the  sheriffs  of  the  North  and 
South  to  leave  trials  to  the  care  of  lieutenants  of  various  ranks, 
etc. — reforms  which  were  only  partially  or  imperfectly  carried 

out. 

The  Government  then  made  public  its  resolution  with  regard 
to  the  Protestants.  Catherine  explained  that  after  so  many 
Chanee  years  of  repression,  now  recognized  as  inefficacious, 

o!  policy  the   experiment   of   a   policy   of   gentleness   and 

towards  the  liberalism  was  to  be  tried.  On  February  24,  1561, 
Protestants.  ^n  edict  was  published,  by  the  terms  of  which 
all  Protestants  who  were  in  prison  were  to  be  released,  and 
judicial  suits  brought  against  them  were  to  be  stopped.  Hugue- 
nots who  had  been  banished  were  authorized  to  return,  and 
those  who  had  been  sent  to  the  galleys  were  recalled.  The  Act 
added,  it  is  true,  "  on  condition  that  they  become  Catholics  "  ; 
but  no  notice  was  taken  of  this  proviso.  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
this  edict  of  toleration  gave  Protestantism  the  most  decided 
impetus  that  it  had  ever  received.  Hitherto  as  a  restricted, 
threatened,  and  dangerous  faith,  the  Protestant  religion  had 
succeeded  in  collecting  but  a  small  number  of  converts.  But 
from  this  moment  it  assumed  a  prominent  position.  People 
began  to  attend  the  services  out  of  curiosity,  and  the  simple 
piety  of  the  new  religion  attracted  and  converted  many.  Gradu- 
ally a  movement  was  inaugurated  which  became  a  force  and  a 
fashion,  accelerating  the  development  of  Protestantism  before 
the  very  eyes  of  the  astonished  Catholics,  who  were  held  in 
check  by  the  idea  that  the  King  approved  of  it,  or  that  it  was 
an  irresistible  power.  At  the  end  of  six  months  in  one  of  the 
southern  towns  the  Huguenots  were  in  the  majority.  To  prove 
this  we  need  only  refer  to  the  curious  Diary  of  Jean  Faurin, 
a  Protestant  hosier  of  Castres,  in  which  he  relates  the  events 
which  took  place  from  day  to  day  in  that  little  town  : 

The  end  of  the  year  1560  was  marked  in  Castres  by  a  terrible 
persecution.  Magistrates  arrived  from  Toulouse  and  Carcas- 
sonne and  multiplied  the  number  of  summonses,  arrests,  and 
imprisonments.      The    services    were    celebrated    secretly    by 

195 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

night,  but  enormous  difficulty  was  experienced  in  holding  them 
without  provoking  outbursts  of  fury  on  the  part  of  the  popu- 
Faurin's  lace,  which  was  ready  to  stone  the  hated  Hugue- 

"  Diary."  nots.     In  February,  1561,  the  edict  arrived.      All 

the  Protestants  in  the  prisons  were  at  once  set  free.  Monsieur  de 
Lostau,  the  Huguenot  minister,  began  to  preach  in  the  houses. 
Nothing  was  said  to  him.  On  April  18  he  preached  publicly 
in  the  school  to  an  audience  of  500  or  600  people.  The  magis- 
trates were  angry  and  ordered  him  out  of  the  town.  He  refused 
to  go,  and  they  did  not  dare  to  force  him  "  for  fear  of  a  popular 
outbreak."  On  April  26  and  28  ministers  arrived  from  Geneva. 
On  June  5  the  procession  of  the  Holy  Sacrament  of  Corpus 
Christi  took  place  in  the  town,  and,  for  the  first  time,  the 
Protestants  did  not  decorate  their  houses  with  hangings. 
"  But  no  one  took  any  notice  of  it."  On  July  6  the  Lord's 
Supper  w^as  celebrated  at  the  school,  and  600  people  received 
the  Sacrament.  One  Tuesday  in  August  the  Protestants  all 
shut  their  shops  at  midday  and  went  to  prayers  with  their 
servants.  They  repeated  this  every  Tuesday,  and  nobody 
said  anything.  On  Sunday,  August  81,  the  first  Huguenot 
funeral  took  place,  and  "  there  was  not  the  slightest  commo- 
tion." On  September  1  the  election  of  borough  consuls  and 
of  the  procurator  royal  was  held.  Protestants  were  returned 
for  all  the  posts.  The  consuls  and  the  members  of  the  consistory 
went  to  the  clergy  of  the  second  most  important  parish  in  the 
town,  Notre  Dame  de  la  Plate,  and  demanded  the  keys  of  the 
church  in  order  that  they  might  hold  a  Calvinistic  service  in 
it.  The  priest  in  charge  refused  to  admit  them,  and  they  there- 
upon broke  open  the  doors  of  the  church  and  held  the  service 
in  spite  of  him — "  nobody  raised  any  commotion."  On 
October  5,  the  Lord's  Supper  was  celebrated  in  the  same  church. 
At  the  end  of  October  "  by  order  of  their  honours  the  magis- 
trates, all  the  idols — ^the  statues — and  all  the  altars  "  of  this 
church  were  pulled  down  "  without  any  opposition."  And 
thus,  before  the  end  of  the  year  1561,  Protestantism,  which  at 
the  beginning  of  it  had  been  restricted,  repressed,  and  punished, 
was  installed  at  Castres  with  the  enjoyment  of  full  liberty  of 
conscience  and  freedom  of  worship,  and  was  in  possession  of 
the  municipality  and  the  churches.  Much  the  same  thing 
196 


BLOODSTAINED    ANARCHY 

took  place  almost  everywhere.  From  one  end  of  France  to 
the  other,  the  Catholics,  unable  to  understand  what  was  happen- 
ing, looked  on  in  stupefaction. 

Meanwhile  at  Court  complications  were  arising.  Catherine 
de'  Medici,  true  to  her  promise,  had  released  Conde.  But  he 
wished  to  be  legally  rehabilitated  and  not  merely  pardoned, 
and  had  demanded  and  obtained  a  verdict  from  the  Parliament 
attesting  his  innocence.  The  Guises,  already  enraged  by  all 
that  was  taking  place,  protested  loudly,  and  declared  that  this 
verdict  amounted  to  the  repeal  of  an  act  of  the  late  King. 
The  Cardinal  of  Lorraine  left  the  Court,  and  Conde  informed 
Catherine  that  he  would  only  return  to  her  on  condition  that 
his  mortal  enemy,  Francis  of  Guise,  was  driven  from  her  presence. 
By  dint  of  manoeuvring,  Catherine  succeeded  in  calming  this 
first  storm.  She  summoned  Conde  to  Fontainebleau  and 
received  him  in  the  most  charming  manner.  Conde  himself, 
according  to  Brantome,  was  "  extremely  agreeable,  amenable, 
and  amiable  "  ;  and  allowed  himself  to  be  won  over.  The 
cloud  passed  by.  The  King  of  Navarre  had  been  made  Lieu- 
tenant-General  of  the  Kingdom. 

But  it  was  impossible  for  the  Catholics  to  remain  indefinitely 
silent  in  face  of  the  changes  which  were  being  introduced  to 
Montmorency,  ^^^  detriment  of  their  religion.  The  Duke  of 
Saint-Andr6,  Guise  consulted  with  the  Constable  Montmorency 
Guise.  and   Marshal   de   Saint-Andre   on  the   situation, 

and  agreed  with  them  that  they  must  combine  to  resist  a 
movement  which  threatened  to  ruin  the  State.  The  three 
men  made  a  compact  and  formed  themselves  into  a  sort  of 
triumvirate.  As  soon  as  their  agreement  became  known 
adherents  flocked  to  them  from  all  quarters.  Like  Chantonnay, 
the  ambassador  of  Philip  of  Spain,  they  all  considered  that 
whether  deliberately  or  not,  Catherine  de'  Medici  by  her  policy 
of  toleration  was  paving  the  way  for  the  triumph  of  Protestant- 
ism. Was  not  Conde  already  freely  inviting  Huguenot  ministers 
to  preach  at  Court  ?  Were  not  the  Protestants  influential 
enough  to  bring  about  the  disgrace  of  Catholic  officials,  like 
Montmorency's  brother-in-law  Villars,  in  Languedoc,  who  had 
been  over  zealous  against  the  Calvinists  ?  The  triumvirate 
was  welcomed  with  acclamations,  and  the  Cardinal  de  Tournon 

197 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

and  the  Dukes  of  Montpensier  and  Brissac  lent  it  their  support. 
The  Catholic  sovereigns,  the  Pope,  the  King  of  Spain,  and  the 
Duke  of  Savoy,  displayed  their  deep  sympathy,  for  Europe 
was  watching  the  events  that  were  taking  place  in  France  with 
the  closest  attention.  Philip  II  more  especially  was  concerned 
to  know  whether  Protestantism  was  going  to  win  yet  another 
great  kingdom — an  anxious  question  for  the  King  of  Spain, 
seeing  that  the  Netherlands  had  already  gone  over  to  the  new 
religion.  Catherine,  who  was  greatly  harassed,  tried  to  calm 
them  and  reassure  them  as  to  her  intentions.  She  wrote  to 
her  daughter,  Elizabeth  of  Spain,  "  I  am  obliged  to  have  the 
King  of  Navarre  at  my  side.  The  laws  of  France  insist  upon 
it."  She  explained  to  her  ambassador  in  Spain  that,  as  a 
matter  of  fact,  with  Protestants  on  one  side  and  Catholics  on 
the  other,  the  Bourbons  and  the  triumvirs,  she  was  trying  "  to 
find  a  via  media  between  the  two  parties."  She  informed 
foreign  Courts  and  the  Pope  that  nothing  had  been  changed 
in  France  with  respect  to  the  Protestants,  and  that  there  was 
no  need  for  them  to  be  concerned.  But  causes  for  further 
alarm  were  not  slow  to  arise. 

Like  a  plague  spot,  Protestantism  gradually  spread  farther 
and  farther  with  astonishing  rapidity.  But  as  the  inevitable 
Protestant  consequence  of  this,  in  those  places  where  the 
outrages.  Protestants  were  in  a  majority,  they  declared, 

as  they  had  done  at  Geneva,  that  they  could  not  tolerate  what 
they  called  "  idolatry "  in  their  midst,  and  the  scandal  of 
"  Romish  superstition."  They  had  demanded  toleration,  and 
it  had  been  granted  them.  They  had  taken  freedom  of  worship, 
and  the  officials  had  been  obliged  to  let  them  have  their  way. 
And  now,  intolerant  in  their  turn,  they  wished  to  destroy 
Catholicism.  Irritated  chiefly  by  the  worship  of  images,  the 
Protestants  began  to  smash  the  statues  in  the  churches  all 
over  the  country. 

The  Catholics  resisted,  and  conflicts  took  place,  resulting 
in  a  certain  number  of  deaths.  The  Huguenots  attacked 
religious  processions  and  tried  to  disorganize  them,  whilst  the 
Catholics  invaded  the  Protestant  services.  Disorders  occurred 
throughout  the  kingdom,  and  from  all  quarters  there  reached 
the  Government  in  general,  and  I'Hopital  in  particular,  unani- 
198 


BLOODSTAINED    ANARCHY 

mous  complaints  on  the  part  of  the  CathoHcs  against  his  policy 
of  weakness  and  concession.  The  Chancellor  was  regarded  as 
a  Huguenot.  What  had  he  done  with  the  ancient  laws  ?  Had 
he  or  had  he  not  repealed  them  ?  The  Government,  in  some 
anxiety,  published  a  new  edict  in  July,  1561,  reconcmiending 
people  to  keep  the  peace  and  to  practise  toleration,  prohibiting 
the  bearing  of  arms,  and  whilst  renewing  the  retrospective 
armistice  with  regard  to  the  Protestants,  forbidding  them,  in 
accordance  with  the  old  edicts  of  the  past,  to  hold  public  or 
private  meetings  on  pain  of  being  summoned  before  the  civil 
tribunals  and  being  punished  with  imprisonment  or  the  confisca- 
tion of  their  goods,  the  extreme  penalty  of  death  being  pro- 
hibited. This  timorous  expedient  contented  nobody,  and  the 
universal  seething  of  discontent  continued  unchecked  whilst 
I'Hopital  was  declared  to  be  absolutely  powerless. 

The  Chancellor  thereupon  conceived  an  unexpected  plan — 
that  of  reuniting  the  Protestant  and  the  Catholic  communions 
by  endeavouring  to  reconcile  their  doctrines.  The  Catholics 
were  to  make  concessions  on  questions  of  discipline  and  cere- 
mony, whilst  the  Protestants  on  their  side  were  to  give  way 
on  points  of  dogma.  A  conference  was  to  be  convoked  between 
the  bishops  and  the  Protestant  ministers  at  which  the  conditions 
of  the  agreement  were  to  be  discussed.  Catherine  approved 
of  the  plan,  and  the  Protestants  gave  their  consent  to  it.  The 
bishops,  humiliated  by  the  thought  of  a  discussion  of  this  kind, 
would  never  have  agreed  to  take  part  in  it,  had  not  the  Cardinal 
of  Lorraine,  who  hoped  to  win  a  great  oratorical  victory  by 
his  eloquence,  prevailed  upon  them  to  do  so.  The  Colloquy, 
The  Colloquy  ^^  ^^^  meeting  was  called,  was  summoned  to 
of  Poissy,  meet  at  Poissy  in  August  1561.  Twelve  Protestant 

1561.  ministers  arrived  headed  by  the  illustrious  Theo- 

dore Beza,  Calvin's  favourite  disciple,  a  supple-minded,  elegant, 
and  fiery-tempered  divine  ;  and  Peter  Martyr  from  Zurich. 
On  their  way  they  passed  through  Saint -Germain  where  the 
Court  was  staying  and  were  granted  a  gracious  reception,  "  far 
more  friendly  a  one  than  the  Pope  would  have  received  if 
he  had  come,"  as  Claude  Haton  petulantly  observes  in  his 
Diary.  The  assembly  was  opened  on  September  9  at  Poissy 
in  the  old  refectory  of  the  Dominican  monastery  dating  from 

199 


CENTURY    OF    THE     RENAISSANCE 

the  time  of    Saint  Louis,    and  was    attended    by   enormous  i 

numbers.  The  httle  King,  Charles  IX,  presided  over  it  with 
his  mother,  Catherine  de'  Medici,  at  his  side.  Theodore  Beza 
spoke  temperately.  He  had,  according  to  Haton,  "  an  eloquent 
tongue  combined  with  a  beautiful  and  apt  use  of  the  French 
language,  whilst  his  face  and  gestures  attracted  the  hearts  and 
minds  of  his  hearers."  He  held  the  attention  of  the  audience. 
But,  unfortunately,  he  made  some  unhappy  comparison  on 
the  subject  of  the  Eucharist.  Exclamations  burst  forth  from 
the  assembly,  and  the  Cardinal  de  Tournon  sternly  called  the 
speaker  to  order.  "  I  was  on  the  point,"  Catherine  afterwards 
wrote,  "  of  bidding  him  be  silent !  "  At  the  next  sitting,  the 
Cardinal  of  Lorraine  replied,  and  speech  succeeded  speech 
without  any  result.  At  length  it  was  decided  that  it  would  be 
wiser  to  appoint  a  commission  of  ten  members — five  Catholics 
and  five  Protestants — ^to  find  some  formula  of  agreement.  But 
they  too  failed.  The  proceedings  had  been  altogether  barren, 
and  it  was  realized  that  reunion  was  out  of  the  question. 

The  Colloquy  of  Poissy  served  only  to  increase  the  general 
disorder.  The  Protestants  considered  themselves  the  victors. 
**  The  Protestants,"  wrote  d'Aubigne,  "  exalted  by  their  rights, 
proclaimed  the  victory  of  then-  ministers."  And  it  was  indeed 
a  triumph  and  a  distinction  to  have  been  allowed  to  enter  upon 
a  discussion  on  equal  terms  with  prelates  who  had  hitherto 
regarded  the  Huguenots  as  criminals  and  infamous  heretics  ! 
Protestantism  was  now  becoming  a  recognized  religion,  worthy 
of  attention  and  respect !  The  courage  of  the  Calvinists  rose 
high,  and  all  over  the  country  the  result  immediately  made 
itself  felt.     Let  us  return  to  Faurin's  Diary. 

On  December  14,  1561,  in  the  Cathedral  church  of  Saint 
Benoit  at  Castres,  a  certain  friar,  Claude  d'Oraison,  preached 
Further  ^  sermon  in  which  he  vehemently  denounced  the 

Protestant  Reformation.  A  Protestant  scholar  interrupted 
outrages.  him,  and  at  the  top  of  his  voice  shouted  out  that 

"  he  was  a  liar."  The  congregation  kicked  the  scholar  out 
of  the  church,  with  the  result  that  there  was  a  great  commotion 
among  all  the  Huguenots  in  the  town.  In  the  evening  they  all 
gathered  together  carrying  arms,  went  to  the  cloisters  of  Saint 
Benoit,  where  the  friar  lived,  seized  him,  and  cast  him  into 
200 


BLOODSTAINED    ANARCHY 

prison.  The  Catholics  were  terrified  and  made  no  protest. 
The  next  day  Father  d'Oraison  was  conducted  to  the  gate  of 
the  town  and  told  to  depart.  On  December  31  the  borough 
magistrates,  still  all  Protestants,  ordered  the  statues  and  images 
in  the  churches  to  be  demolished.  On  January  1,  1562,  they 
formally  forbade  the  Roman  Catholic  clergy  to  say  Mass  inside 
the  town — thus  abolishing  the  Catholic  religion  in  Castres.  On 
January  4  the  magistrates  went  in  a  body  to  the  Convent  of 
Sainte-Claire  and  drove  out  the  twenty  nuns  they  found  there. 
On  February  2  a  Trinitarian  monk  was  discovered  celebrating 
the  Mass  in  secret  in  the  presence  of  a  small  congregation  of 
the  faithful.  He  was  seized,  put  on  a  donkey  with  his  face 
to  the  tail,  to  which  he  clung  with  both  hands,  and,  dressed 
in  his  sacerdotal  vestments,  was  marched  through  all  the 
streets  of  the  town.  After  this  exhibition  he  was  taken  to 
the  square,  set  upon  a  chair  and  shaved,  and  was  then  shown 
the  consecrated  wafer,  and  asked  whether  he  were  ready  to  die 
for  it.  The  poor  man  was  terrified  and  replied  in  the  negative 
whereupon  his  sacerdotal  garments  were  burnt,  and  he  himself 
was  driven  away  after  having  been  made  to  promise  that  he 
would  never  again  celebrate  the  Mass. 

Similar  occurrences  took  place  on  every  side.  In  all  quarters 
the  Protestants  invaded  the  churches,  drove  out  the  priests, 
and  usurped  their  places.  The  church  bells  were  suppressed, 
and  were  replaced  by  drums.  The  altars  were  overthrown 
and  the  images  of  the  saints  were  destroyed.  Here  and  there 
the  Catholics  were  either  less  patient  or  stronger  than  their 
co-religionists  in  Castres,  and  attacked  their  adversaries.  In 
December,  1561,  a  scuffle  took  place  in  Paris  in  the  Faubourg 
Saint-Marcel,  during  which  the  Huguenots  invaded  the  church 
of  Saint -M6dard  and  pillaged  it.  The  Catholics  retaliated  by 
rushing  to  the  Protestant  meeting-house  and  burning  the 
contents. 

In  face  of  the  advancing  tide,  Michel  de  I'Hopital  came  to 
the  conclusion  that  he  must  swim  M'ith  the  current  if  he  hoped 
Concessions  ever  to  stem  it,  and  in  January,  1562,  he  published 
to  the  an    edict    authorizing    the    Protestants    to    hold 

Protestants.       meetings — which  was  merely  the  legal  recognition 
of  an  accomplished  fact — but  only  on  condition  that  they  took 

201 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

place  outside  the  towns,  in  the  suburbs,  for  instance,  and 
that  no  places  of  worship  should  be  built ;  there  was  a 
further  proviso  that  the  Calvinists  should  give  back  to  the 
Catholics  all  the  churches  they  had  seized.  The  Protestants 
were  satisfied  with  this  concession.  And,  indeed,  it  was  consider- 
able. For  the  first  time  they  had  received  official  recognition. 
Their  meetings  were  authorized,  and  the  practice  of  their  religion 
was  no  longer  an  offence,  but  the  regular  exercise  of  a  right. 
They  accepted  the  conditions.  At  Castres  the  Huguenots  gave 
up  the  churches  of  La  Plate  and  Saint -Benoit,  and  held  their 
meetings  on  the  boulevard  of  the  Porte  de  I'Albinique  under 
tents  put  up  for  the  occasion.  No  priest,  however,  had  the 
courage  to  enter  the  town  to  celebrate  Mass. 

The  edict  was  greeted  by  a  violent  outburst  of  indigna- 
tion on  the  part  of  the  Catholics.  The  Government  was  accused 
Discontent  of  of  definitively  giving  way  to  the  heretics.  The 
the  Catholics,  latter,  it  was  argued,  were  only  a  minority,  and 
"  in  the  wrong,"  yet  they  were  gradually  gaining  privileges 
equal  to  those  enjoyed  by  the  majority,  who  had  remained 
faithful  to  the  true  religion.  The  Catholics  were  no  longer  in 
a  position  to  insist  that  the  Calvinists  should  not  be  allowed 
to  practise  their  religion  ;  they  were  now  called  upon  to  defend 
themselves  against  adversaries  who,  after  having  demanded 
and  obtained  freedom  of  worship,  were  arrogating  to  themselves 
the  right  of  interfering  with  the  religious  liberty  of  others,  and 
from  being  persecuted  had  themselves  become  persecutors. 
There  was  no  longer  any  room  for  doubt — the  Regent  and  her 
Chancellor  were  giving  the  country  over  into  the  hands  of  the 
Protestants  !  Urgent  complaints  were  addressed  to  the  Govern- 
ment from  abroad  on  the  subject  of  its  weakness.  Philip  II 
wrote  angrily  that  if  the  Regent  were  not  in  a  position  to  cope 
with  the  heretics,  she  might  have  the  use  of  his  troops.  When 
Catherine  in  high  dudgeon  replied  that  it  was  out  of  the  question 
for  the  affairs  of  France  to  be  managed  "  by  any  other  than 
her  own  forces,"  the  King  of  Spain  retorted  that  if  this  were 
so,  he  would  offer  his  soldiers  to  the  Catholics,  a  reply  which 
only  enraged  the  Queen-Mother  the  more.  However,  as 
Philip  II,  in  his  anxiety  at  the  thought  of  the  effect  which  events 
in  France  might  have  in  his  own  provinces  of  the  Netherlands, 
202 


BLOODSTAINED    ANARCHY 

remarked  :  "  It  was  better  to  go  and  put  out  the  fire  in  a  neigh- 
bour's house  than  to  wait  for  it  to  spread  to  one's  own."  The 
Regent  wrote  letter  after  letter  to  explain  and  justify  her 
attitude,  and  gave  him  every  assurance  that  she  was  firmly 
resolved  to  suppress  heresy.  She  was  merely  accused  of  double 
dealing,  and  Maisonfleur  gave  her  the  nickname  of  Madame 
la  Serpente.  The  Duke  of  Alba,  the  Governor  of  the  Nether- 
lands, was  of  opinion  that  in  the  end  it  would  be  necessary  to 
interfere  in  France.  Owing  to  the  absence  of  forces  sufficient 
to  maintain  public  order  in  the  country,  the  smallest  incident 
was  sufficient  to  produce  civil  war,  which  was  already  immi- 
nent. An  incident  of  this  nature  occurred  on  March  1,  1562, 
at  Vassy. 

Duke  Francis  of  Guise  chanced  to  be  returning  from  S'averne 
to  Paris  with  an  escort  of  over  two  hundred  horsemen,  when, 
The  Massacre  as  he  was  going  through  Vassy,  on  the  frontier 
of  Vassy,  1562.  of  Champagne,  one  Sunday  morning  he  passed 
a  barn  where  a  Protestant  service  was  being  held  at  which 
about  400  or  500  people  were  present.  The  members  of  his 
train  and  some  of  the  congregation  exchanged  taunts.  This 
led  to  blows,  and  the  Duke  or  Guise's  nobles  backed  their  own 
men,  with  the  result  that  the  whole  body  attacked  the  Protestant 
assembly.  The  Huguenots  tried  to  defend  themselves  by 
throwing  stones,  one  of  which  wounded  the  Duke,  whose 
followers  thereupon  drew  their  swords  in  fury,  and  struck  out 
right  and  left.  The  Protestants  fled  helter-skelter,  but  twenty- 
three  were  killed  and  over  a  hundred  were  wounded.  It  was 
the  first  really  serious  incident  in  the  struggle  that  was  about 
to  begin,  and  the  first  in  which  there  had  been  much  bloodshed. 

The  incident  was  turned  to  account  by  the  Protestants, 
among  whom  it  aroused  a  considerable  commotion.  The 
Catholics  tried  to  make  light  of  an  affair  which  they  termed 
"  an  accident,"  "  a  mere  scuffle."  The  Huguenots  could  talk 
of  nothing  but  "  the  Massacre  of  Vassy,"  and  indignantly 
declared  that  the  plot  on  the  part  of  their  enemies  to  destroy 
them  had  now  been  unmasked,  Catherine,  much  alarmed, 
forbade  Francis  of  Guise  to  enter  Paris,  where  the  populace, 
who  were  fervent  Catholics,  might,  in  their  ardour,  provoke 
fresh  complications,  and  ordered  him  to  join  her  at  Montceaux. 

203 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

The  passions  which  had  been  unloosed  were,  however,  too 
strong  to  be  curbed.  Guise  disobeyed  her  orders  and  went  to 
Paris,  where  he  was  received  by  the  two  other  triumvirs  and 
greeted  by  the  frenzied  acclamations  of  the  mob.  The  Provost 
of  the  Merchants  welcomed  him  at  the  Porte  Saint -Denis  and 
hailed  him  as  the  "  Defender  of  the  Faith."  Catherine  de' 
Medici,  growing  more  and  more  anxious,  left  Montceaux,  with 
all  the  Court,  and  shut  herself  up  in  the  Chateau  de  Melun, 
a  safer  and  stronger  position.  From  thence  she  reached 
Fontainebleau.  There  was  no  knowing  what  might  happen 
next.  The  Prince  of  Cond6  was  in  Paris,  surrounded  on  all 
sides  by  resolute  partisans,  and  never  going  out  without  arms 
and  an  escort.  A  hostile  encounter  between  the  two  foes  was 
inevitable.  By  dint  of  entreaties  the  Cardinal  of  Bourbon 
succeeded  in  inducing  Conde  to  leave  the  city.  But  he  merely 
went  to  Meaux,  whither  he  summoned  all  his  friends,  servants, 
and  supporters.  The  Chatillons  joined  him,  though  Coligny 
did  so  unwillingly — recognizing  that  this  concentration  of 
forces  at  Meaux  was  neither  more  nor  less  than  the  nucleus 
of  an  army  of  revolt,  and  unable  to  reconcile  his  conscience  to 
the  idea  of  becoming  a  rebel.  In  a  very  short  space  of  time 
100  gentlemen  and  1500  horsemen  were  collected.  In  order 
to  allay  Coligny's  scruples,  Conde  explained  that  the  King  was 
a  prisoner  in  the  hands  of  counsellors,  of  whom  they  themselves 
were  the  victims,  that  there  was  no  question  of  taking  up  arms 
against  his  Majesty,  but  that  they  purposed  to  release  him, 
and  inaugurate  a  wiser  plan  of  government  in  his  name.  In 
this  way  the  semblance  of  legality  was  preserved. 

In  point  of  fact  the  Court,  hemmed  in  between  the  two 
opposing  parties,  the  Catholic  triumvirs  on  the  one  side  and 
the  Protestant  Bourbons  on  the  other,  was  faced  with  the 
problem  of  deciding  which  of  the  two  it  should  support.  Paris 
was  in  a  state  of  acute  agitation,  and  Catherine  de'  Medici  made 
up  her  mind  to  advance  at  all  costs,  and  use  her  authority. 
She  left  Fontainebleau  and  together  with  the  King  came  and 
shut  herself  up  in  Vincennes.  The  triumvirs,  however,  inter- 
preted this  as  a  public  avowal  that  the  Government  was  on 
their  side.  A  council  was  held  at  the  Louvre  at  which  the 
Regent  was  present.  The  triumvirs  proposed  that  they  should 
204 


BLOODSTAINED    ANARCHY 

march  out  resolutely  against  Conde.     Catherine  and  I'Hdpital 
refused  to  sanction  this  step. 

The  Court,  however,  was  practically  in  the  power  of  the 
Catholics,  and  Conde  made  up  his  mind  that  the  die  had  been 
cast.  He  left  Meaux,  which  was  too  near  Paris — as  he  had 
not  sufficient  forces  at  his  command — and  reached  Orleans, 
where  he  published  a  manifesto,  declaring  that  the  King  was 
no  longer  free,  and  must  be  set  at  liberty,  and  calling  upon  all 
the  Calvinist  churches  in  the  kingdom  to  raise  troops  and  send 
them  to  him.  He  declined  all  responsibility  for  the  conflict, 
which  he  laid  to  the  charge  of  the  Guises  and  their  provocative 
behaviour,  and  ended  by  repeating  that  he  wished  to  liberate 
the  King,  his  brother,  and  the  Queen-Mother,  and  secure  the 
carrying  out  of  the  edicts.  According  to  him,  right  was  entirely 
on  his  side. 

Meanwhile,  civil  war  was  breaking  out  all  over  the  country. 
Catholics  and  Protestants  were  attacking  each  other  on  every 
First  hand.     The  Parisians  refused  to  acknowledge  the 

Civil  War.  edict  of  January,  and  would  not  tolerate  the 
presence  of  any  known  Huguenot  in  their  city.  In  the  provinces 
anarchy  reigned  unchecked.  The  Protestants  went  about  in 
bodies  attacking  the  churches,  smashing  the  statues  with  their 
muskets,  breaking  open  the  doors,  collecting  in  a  heap  in  the 
choir  all  the  ornaments,  reliquaries,  pyxes,  and  chalices  they 
could  find,  and  making  a  bonfire  of  them.  They  then  turned 
to  the  tombs,  broke  them  open,  and  scattered  the  bones.  The 
tomb  of  Louis  XI  at  Clery  was  violated  in  this  way,  and  the 
remains  of  the  Bourbons  at  Vendome  were  disinterred.  Claude 
de  Sainctes,  who  recounts  these  deeds,  was  scandalized  by 
them.  They  carried  country  towns  by  assault  and  drove  out 
the  Catholic  priests.  "  The  walls  of  Puylaurens,"  writes  Jean 
Faurin,  "  were  scaled  and  the  town  was  captured  by  members 
of  the  reformed  faith.  When  once  they  had  made  an  entry 
they  put  down  idolatry  and  the  Mass,  and  established  the 
ministry  of  the  Word  of  God  according  to  the  Holy  Scriptures. 
And  in  so  doing  they  acted  after  the  manner  of  the  good  Josiah." 
Catholic  services  were  abolished  in  every  place  where  the 
Protestants  had  the  upper  hand — in  the  south  and  in  Normandy, 
at  Caen,  Rouen,  and  Bayeux.     They  sent  help  to  each  other 

205 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

from  town  to  town,  exchanging  men,  ammunition,  etc.,  from 
enormous  distances.  The  open  country,  traversed  by  com- 
panies marching  to  their  destinations,  was  no  longer  secure, 
and  men  with  fire-arms  lurked  in  every  hedge  and  ditch.  The 
royal  officials  were  powerless,  and  some  of  the  Governors  were 
murdered  by  the  rioters.  In  Dauphiny  the  terrible  Huguenot 
Baron  des  Adrets  scoured  the  country,  killing,  burning,  and 
pillaging.  Bands  of  Catholics  and  Protestants,  driven  out  of 
the  towns,  wandered  about  until  they  fell  in  with  armed  troops 
who  massacred  them.  Ardent  Catholics  carried  out  the  repres- 
sive measures  pitilessly.  Monluc,  for  instance,  on  the  banks 
of  the  Garonne,  hanged  every  Huguenot  he  met.  "  One  man 
hanged,"  he  said,  "  is  a  better  example  than  a  hundred  killed." 
He  carried  out  his  decrees  swiftly  without  either  verdict  or 
writing,  "  for,"  he  added,  "  in  these  matters  I  have  heard  tell 
that  it  is  best  to  begin  with  the  execution.  If  all  who  had 
charge  of  the  provinces  had  acted  as  I  do,  the  conflagration 
which  has  burnt  up  everything  would  have  been  stamped  out." 
The  year  1562  was  one  of  the  most  lamentable  in  French 
history.  Never  had  the  country  presented  such  a  terrible 
spectacle,  not  even  during  the  Hundred  Years  War,  when  the 
misery  was  not  nearly  so  widespread.  "  There  is  not  a  corner 
of  land  that  has  escaped  devastation,"  wrote  Hubert  Languet. 
"All  business  in  the  kingdom  is  suspended,"  Chantonnay,  the 
Spanish  Ambassador,  informed  Margaret  of  Parma,  "  which 
is  a  great  pity  "  ;  whilst  Castelnau  declared  "  the  civil  war 
is  like  a  raging  fire  burning  and  consuming  the  whole  of  France." 
Meanwhile  Catherine  de'  Medici  in  despair  was  leaving  no 
stone  unturned  to  postpone  the  conflict  with  the  Prince  of 
Conde.  She  kept  writing  to  him,  trying  to  calm  him  and  bring 
him  back,  bidding  him  come  to  see  her,  and  asking  him  to  name 
his  conditions.  Cond6  replied  that  he  demanded  the  expulsion 
of  the  triumvirs,  and  the  punishment  of  those  responsible  for 
the  massacre  of  Vassy.  The  triumvirs  consented  to  absent 
themselves  from  Court,  but  on  condition  that  the  Government 
should  ensure  the  exclusive  exercise  of  the  Catholic  religion  in 
France.  The  dilemma  was  insoluble.  From  the  provinces 
news  kept  arriving  day  by  day  which  added  fuel  to  the 
fire.  At  Toulouse  fighting  in  the  streets  had  lasted  for  four 
206 


BLOODSTAINED    ANARCHY 

days,  one  quarter  of  the  town  had  been  set  on  fire,  and  400 
people  had  been  killed.  The  taxes  were  no  longer  paid,  and 
the  whole  country  was  in  a  state  of  terror.  Under  the  stress 
of  public  opinion,  which  had  become  exasperated,  and  at  the 
instigation  of  the  Papal  Nuncio  and  the  Spanish  ambassador, 
Catherine  de'  Medici  decided  to  allow  the  army  mustered  against 
Conde  to  march.  It  consisted  of  6000  infantry  and  4000  cavalry, 
under  the  command  of  Antoine  de  Bourbon,  King  of  Navarre, 
Lieutenant- General  of  France.  This  frivolous,  inconsistent, 
and  apathetic  individual  who,  reviewing  his  position,  pre- 
ferred to  keep  the  honours  and  dignities  which  the  State  had 
conferred  on  him,  had  abandoned  the  Protestants,  and  made 
profession  of  the  Catholic  faith,  with  the  result  that  he 
was  constrained  to  lead  a  body  of  troops  against  his  own 
brother. 

Before  the  hostile  forces  met  Catherine  made  one  last 
attempt  to  come  to  terms.  Conferences  were  held  at  Toury, 
but  both  sides  persisted  in  making  irreconcilable  demands. 
The  Protestants  declared  that  these  negotiations  were  mere 
feints,  and  Conde's  gentlemen  insisted  upon  war.  Gradually 
the  Court  became  convinced  that  the  Government  would  soon 
be  in  the  same  position  as  the  towns  ;  that  if  once  the  Huguenots 
secured  toleration,  they  would  claim  equality  ;  when  they  had 
equality,  they  would  want  to  be  masters,  and  if  they  were 
masters  they  would  destroy  Catholicism  in  France. 

On  July  3  Conde  attempted  a  coup  de  main  and  tried  at 
night  to  take  the  Catholic  army  by  surprise.  He  failed,  and 
;rjig  retreated  towards  Blois  and  Tours.     The  army 

Protestants  of  the  triumvirs  pursued  him,  and  Poitiers  was 
negotiate  with  occupied  without  much  difficulty  by  Marshal  de 
England.  Saint-Andre.     The  Protestant  forces,  which  were 

badly  disciplined,  began  to  disband  and  offered  no  resistance. 
The  Government  thereupon  decided  to  march  upon  Rouen, 
and  a  rumour  spread  abroad  that  Conde  had  entered  into 
negotiations  with  Elizabeth,  Queen  of  England,  with  a  view 
to  obtain  her  support.  Conde  had,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  sent 
La  Haye  and  Jean  de  Ferrieres  to  Hampton  Court  to  dis- 
cuss matters  with  Elizabeth.  Moved  purely  by  self-interest, 
she   had  replied    that    she    would    consent    to    furnish    GOOO 

207 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

men  and  pay  a  sum  of  100,000  crowns  on  condition  of 
being  allowed  to  occupy  Havre,  adding  that,  by  the  terms  of 
the  Treaty  of  Cateau-Cambresis,  Calais  was  to  be  returned  to 
her  at  the  end  of  eight  years,  and  that  she  would  keep  Havre 
as  a  security  for  that  town  and  evacuate  it  if  Calais  were  given 
back  to  her  at  once.  La  Haye  and  Jean  de  Ferri^res  thought 
that  the  occupation  of  Havre  would  terrify  the  French  Court, 
and  they  accordingly  signed  an  agreement  with  Elizabeth.  As 
soon  as  the  clauses  of  this  convention  were  made  known  they 
aroused  violent  indignation.  Conde  and  Coligny  protested, 
and  informed  the  Queen  of  England  through  her  ambassador, 
Throckmorton,  that  they  regarded  the  occupation  of  Havre 
as  purely  temporary,  that  anything  else  would  be  an  everlasting 
blot  upon  their  memory,  and  that  if,  when  peace  was  made 
between  the  Huguenots  and  the  King  of  France,  the  English 
did  not  evacuate  the  place  unconditionally,  all  the  forces  of 
the  country  would  be  sent  against  them.  Jean  de  Ferrieres, 
heart-broken  at  his  own  error,  wrote  to  Elizabeth's  minister 
Cecil :  "I  cannot  tell  you  the  grief  I  feel !  Do  your  best  to 
prevent  my  being  tempted  to  despair  at  seeing  jacturam  honoris 
esse  sine  fructu.'"     He  realized  that  he  had  disgraced  himself. 

At  the  head  of  18,000  men,  Charles  IX  marched  in  person 
upon  Rouen,  where  the  garrison  had  been  reinforced,  as  soon 
The  ^^   Havre   had   been  occupied,   by   500   English 

Catholics  under  the  command  of  Montgommery — the  slayer 

capture  Rouen,  of  Henry  tl.  The  King  of  Navarre  accompanied 
the  King  of  France.  The  attack  was  made  on  October  26. 
It  was  successful ;  the  town  was  captured,  and  Montgommery 
fled.  The  victory,  however,  cost  the  life  of  the  unfortunate 
King  of  Navarre,  who  was  shot  by  an  arquebusier.  He  was 
forty-four  at  the  time  of  his  death,  which  he  met  in  the 
service  of  the  Catholics  after  having  been  the  hope  and  mainstay 
of  the  Huguenot  cause.     He  died  unregretted. 

Meanwhile,  however,  Conde  had  reorganized  his  army, 
reinforcing  it  with  a  body  of  2600  German  reiters  and  3000 
lansquenets,  had  marched  boldly  upon  Paris  and  pitched 
camps  at  Gentilly,  Arcueil,  and  Montrouge.  The  city,  which 
was  well  defended,  held  out  against  him,  whereupon  he 
decided  to  fall  back  upon  Chartres,  proposing  to  reach  Normandy 
208 


BLOODSTAINED    ANARCHY 

and  co-operate  with  the  EiigHsh.  But  the  army  of  the  RoyaHsts 
and  Catholics,  consisting  of  14,000  infantry  and  3000  cavahy 
under  the  command  of  the  three  triumvirs  in  person,  was  track- 
ing him  down,  and  fell  in  with  him  at  Dreux.  This  time  an 
Battle  o£  encounter  was  inevitable,  and  it  took  place  on 

Dreux,  1562.  November  19,  1562 — the  first  battle  of  the  civil 
wars.  Every  one  was  deeply  moved.  "  Each  man,"  says  La 
Noue,  "  thought  within  himself  that  the  soldiers  he  saw  advanc- 
ing were  French,  that  some  of  them  were  his  own  relatives  and 
friends,  and  that  in  an  hour's  time,  they  would  have  to  kill 
each  other  ;  which  filled  him  with  horror  at  the  thought  of 
battle."  In  order  to  recognize  each  other  the  Huguenots  had 
adopted  the  "  uniform  "  which  they  wore  throughout  the  civil 
wars — a  white  cloth  doublet  ;  whilst  the  Catholics  carried 
crucifixes  and  images  in  their  hats.  Under  the  skilful  and 
vigorous  generalship  of  Francis  of  Guise  the  battle  was  decisive. 
By  five  o'clock  in  the  evening  all  was  over,  and  the  Protestants 
had  been  defeated  and  routed.  But  the  victory  had  been 
dearly  bought.  Marshal  de  Saint-Andre  had  been  killed,  and 
the  old  Constable,  Montmorency,  unhorsed  and  wounded,  had 
been  made  prisoner  by  the  Huguenots,  who  carried  him  off 
with  them  in  their  flight.  On  the  other  hand,  Conde  had 
been  surrounded  and  was  in  the  hands  of  the  Catholics.  Six 
thousand  men  lay  dead  upon  the  blood-stained  field  of  battle. 

The  news  of  the  victory  gave  rise  to  unparalleled  rejoicings 
throughout  France.  Processions  were  formed  and  Te  Deums 
sung.  As  the  death  of  Antoine  de  Bourbon  left  the  post  of 
Lieutenant- General  of  the  Kingdom  vacant  it  was  offered  to 
Guise,  who  thereupon  took  over  the  command  of  the  troops. 

After  Conde,  the  leadership  of  the  Protestant  forces  devolved 
upon  Coligny,  who  prudently  beat  a  retreat  and  fell  back  upon 
Murder  o!  Orleans,   where   he   shut   himself  up.     With   his 

Guise,  1563.  habitual  determination  Guise  followed  in  pursuit, 
resolved,  in  his  own  words,  to  catch  the  foxes  in  their  holes. 
He  pitched  his  camp  beneath  the  walls  of  the  town,  whilst  he 
himself  together  with  his  family  found  lodging  at  Valins,  some 
distance  away.  He  stayed  in  the  camp  all  day  and  went  home 
at  night.  On  February  9  the  fort  of  Les  Tourclles  was  taken, 
and  everything  was  progressing  favourably.     On  the  18th,  as 

o  209 


CENTURY    OF     THE    RENAISSANCE 

Guise  was  returning  to  his  lodging  between  six  and  seven  o'clock 
in  the  evening,  a  horseman  was  observed  riding  up  and  down 
the  road,  asking  the  passers-by  whether  the  Duke  would  really 
return  that  way.     Guise  had  sent  one  of  his  gentlemen  on 
ahead  at  a  gallop  to  inform  the  Duchess  that  he  would  be  late, 
but  was  coming.     He  rode  his  horse  at  a  walk  and  was  preceded 
by  a  page  mounted  on  a  mule,  and  accompanied  by  Tristan 
de  Rostaing.     As  soon  as  he  saw  the  group,  the  horseman,  who 
was  on  the  watch,  plunged  into  a  thicket  and  allowed  Guise  to 
pass  him  ;    but  the  moment  he  was  five  or  six  feet  ahead  he 
covered  him  wdth  his  pistol  and  fired.     The  weapon  was  loaded 
with  three  balls,  and  Guise  was  wounded  in  the  right  arm- 
pit.    He   fell  back  exclaiming :  "  I  am  killed  !  "   but  pulling 
himself  together  with  a  violent  effort,  he  tried  to  unsheathe  his 
sword.     He  had  not  the  strength  to  do  so,  however.     Rostaing 
sprang  in  the  direction  from  which  the  shot  had  come,  but  the 
murderer  succeeded  in  keeping  him  off  for  some  time  at  the  point 
of  the  sword,  and  then  setting  spurs  to  his  horse,  disappeared 
into  the  darkness  of  the  wood.     He  wandered  about  the  whole 
night  and  lost  his  way  ;   in  the  morning,  worn  out  with  fatigue 
he  went  into  a  barn  belonging  to  a  farm  to  rest,  and  there  fell 
asleep.     He  was  under  the  impression  that  he  had  been  riding 
away  from  the  camp,  but,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  he  had  come 
back  to  it  in  a  circle,  and  was  on  the  Pont  d' Olivet,  near  the 
spot  where  the  Swiss   were   encamped.     Monsieur  de  Seurre, 
one   of  Guise's   lieutenants,  discovered   him  in  the  barn  and 
arrested  him.    He  offered  no  resistance.    He  was  a  young  man 
of  six-and-twenty,  a  Protestant  from  the  Angoumois,  whose 
name  was  Poltrot  de  Mer6. 

For  six  days  Guise  hovered  between  life  and  death.  He 
bore  his  sufferings  courageously,  and  died  on  February  24, 
Coligny  between  ten  and  eleven  o'clock  in  the  morning, 

accused  o!  The  news  of  his  death  caused  a  profound  sensation, 
the  murder.  Xhe  chief  of  the  nation  had  passed  away,  the 
skilful  and  lucky  general,  the  glorious  victor  in  many  a  battle. 
Smith,  the  English  ambassador,  wrote  to  Queen  Elizabeth : 
"  He  was  the  greatest  warrior  that  France  or  even  Christendom 
has  ever  seen,  hardened  to  fatigue,  courteous  and  eloquent, 
loved  alike  by  the  common  soldier  and  by  men  of  rank."  Public 
210 


BLOODSTAINED    ANARCHY 

opinion  with  one  accord  accused  Coligny  of  having  armed  the 
hand  of  the  assassin  ;    but  this  has  never  been  proved,  nor  is 
it  likely  to  have  been  the  case.     Poltrot,  when  he  was  cross- 
examined,  confessed  that  he  had  received  100  crowns  from  the 
Admiral  to  do  the  deed  ;    and  the  Government  published  this 
avowal  all  over  the  country.     Coligny  was  obliged  to  answer 
the  accusation,  and  did  so  very  clumsily.     He  acknowledged 
that  on  two  different  occasions  he  had  given  Poltrot  £50  and 
£300.     The  Duke  of  Guise,  he  added,  was  an  enemy  of  God, 
of  the  King,  and  of  the  country,  who  had  planned,  so  he  had 
been  informed,  to  have  him,  Coligny,  killed.     But  though  he 
never   actually   instigated   anyone   to   murder   the   Duke,    he 
certainly  never  tried  to  stop  those  who  talked   of  doing   so 
from  carrying  their  threats  into  execution  ;    and  he  ended  this 
reply,  which  was  addressed  to  Catherine,  by  saying,  "  Do  not 
imagine.  Madam,  that  what  I  have  said  means  that  I  regret 
the    death    of   Monsieur    de    Guise ;    for  I    think  it  was  the 
greatest  blessing  that  could  be  conferred  upon  the  Church  of 
God  and  this  kingdom  in  general,  and  more  particularly  upon 
myself  and  all  my  house."     This  letter  produced  a  deplorable 
effect.     "  Though  he  does  not  frankly  confess  to  having  con- 
sented  to   this   murder,"    wrote    Pasquier,    "  he   nevertheless 
defends  himself  so  coldly  that  those  who  wish  him  well  would 
fain  he  had  either  held  his  tongue  or  made  a  better  apology  !  " 
And  Brantome  added,  "  Many  people  were  astonished  that  a 
man  who  was  so  cold  and  modest  in  speech  should  have  given 
utterance  to  such  words,  which  served  no  purpose  and  with 
which  he  might  well  have  dispensed  !  "     With  all  his  great 
qualities  Coligny  was  guilty  of  certain  errors  of  judgment.     The 
Guise  family,  convinced  that  he  was  the  murderer,  were  for 
the  future  imbued  with  the   one   idea   of  avenging  the   death 
of  Duke  Francis  by  the  blood  of  the  Admiral.    Poltrot  de  Mere 
was  hanged  and  quartered  on  the  Place  de  Greve  on  March  18. 

With  Conde  a  prisoner.  Guise  dead,  and  Coligny  discredited, 
Catherine  de'  Medici's  task  was  simplified.  An  agreement  was 
The  Peace  and  reached  and  a  peace  concluded,  the  terms  of  which 
the  Edict  of  were  proclaimed  by  a  royal  edict — the  Edict  of 
Amboise,  1563.  Amboise  of  March  19,  1563.  The  prisoners  on 
both  sides,  Montmorency  and  Conde,  were  set  free.     The  exercise 

211 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

of  the  Protestant  religion  was  definitely  authorized  in  any 
town  on  permission  being  obtained  from  the  sheriff,  as  well  as 
in  all  towns  where  the  Calvinists  were  the  undisputed  masters, 
but  it  was  forbidden  in  Paris.  Huguenot  nobles  were  em- 
powered to  have  services  held  in  their  own  houses.  In  return,  the 
Protestants  were  to  evacuate  the  churches,  which  were  to  be 
given  back  to  the  Catholics,  and  they  were  still  to  be  excluded 
from  public  office.  Conde  was  extremely  dissatisfied.  He 
wanted  better  terms,  but  his  eagerness  to  be  set  free  made  him 
agree  to  the  peace.  The  Catholics,  who  would  hear  of  nothing 
but  repressive  measures,  were  even  more  discontented.  But 
Catherine  de'  Medici  was  determined  to  re-establish  order  at 
all  costs  ;  which,  indeed,  was  extremely  necessary  ;  for  the 
misery  throughout  the  country  was  terrible,  the  cultivation 
of  the  fields  having  been  abandoned,  and  the  life  of  the  people 
interrupted.  She  laboured  under  no  illusion,  however.  "  We 
have  only  recoiled  to  spring  the  further,"  she  remarked  sadly 
in  one  of  her  letters.  But  it  was  above  all  necessary  to  gain 
time.  In  the  meanwhile  troops  were  sent  against  Havre  to 
drive  out  the  English,  a  task  which  was  accomplished  without 
difficulty,  and  on  the  return  of  the  expedition,  Charles  IX  was 
proclaimed  of  age  at  Rouen.  He  was  now  fourteen,  but  he 
begged  his  mother  to  continue  the  direction  of  the  government. 

The  leaders  of  the  Catholics  and  the  Protestants  once  more 
returned  to  Court,  but  with  what  implacable  feelings  of  mutual 
hatred  may  well  be  imagined  !  The  Guises — more  especially 
the  mother  and  the  widow  of  Duke  Francis — demanded  the 
trial  of  Coligny.  The  son  of  the  murdered  man,  Henry,  who 
was  now  Duke  of  Guise,  and  his  uncle,  the  Duke  of  Aumale, 
were  constantly  uttering  threats  against  the  Admiral,  who  only 
dared  to  put  in  an  appearance  surrounded  by  a  number  of 
gentlemen.  But  Conde,  delighted  at  having  regained  his 
liberty,  threw  himself  with  careless  frivolity  into  all  the  joys 
of  Court  life,  and  the  Protestant  ministers  were  scandalized  at 
seeing  this  lively  little  man  assiduous  in  his  attentions  now  to 
the  widow  of  Marshal  de  Saint-Andre  and  now  to  Mademoiselle 
de  Limeuil.  Everybody  felt  that  the  Peace  of  Amboise  was 
nothing  more  than  a  truce. 

At  this  juncture,  Catherine  de'  Medici  decided  to  keep  all 
212 


BLOODSTAINED    ANARCHY 

this  company  of  people  occupied  by  taking  them  a  journey 
across  France.  She  resolved  to  hold  festivals  and  to  amuse  the 
Travels  of  nobility  in  order  to  prevent  them  from  hatching 

the  Court  conspiracies,  and  more  particularly  she  wished  to 

through  show  the  new  monarch  his  kingdom,  and  prove  to 

France.  ^j^g  provinces,  which  had  been  plunged  in  anarchy, 

that  they  really  had  a  sovereign  whom  it  was  their  duty  to 
obey. 

On  January  24,  1564,  the  expedition  set  forth,  and  the 
lengthy  caravan  passed  through  Troyes,  the  Lorraine  districts, 
Dijon,  Lyons,  and  Dauphiny.  The  Catholics  flocked  to  welcome 
the  procession,  assuring  the  King  of  their  devotion  and  urging 
him  to  pursue  an  energetic  policy.  "  This  belongs  to  you," 
Tavannes  informed  his  sovereign  at  Dijon,  placing  his  hand 
upon  his  heart,  "  and  here  is  a  weapon  you  can  use,"  he  added, 
striking  the  handle  of  his  sword.  Solemn  entries,  receptions, 
banquets  and  balls  followed  each  other  in  close  succession. 
"  And  they  all  dance  together,"  Catherine  informed  the  Duchess 
of  Guise,  "  Huguenots  and  Papists  alike  ;  and  so  happily  indeed, 
that  I  do  not  think  they  would  have  gone  so  far  as  they  have, 
if  God  had  disposed  others  elsewhere  to  act  as  wisely."  The 
royal  procession  crossed  Provence  and  Languedoc  slowly, 
paying  long  visits  to  the  various  towns,  and  only  reached 
Toulouse  in  February,  1565.  From  thence  it  passed  on  to 
Bordeaux,  and  arrived  at  Mont-de-Marsan  in  the  month  of 
May ;  on  June  3  it  reached  Bayonne,  where  Elizabeth,  Queen 
of  Spain,  the  daughter  of  Catherine  de'  Medici,  came  to  see 
her  mother,  accompanied  by  the  Duke  of  Alba.  This  meeting 
at  Bayonne  excited  general  interest. 

For  a  long  time  Catherine  de'  Medici  had  been  dreaming 
of  some  sort  of  "  international  understanding  "  between  the 
Conference  of  Catholic  Powers,  in  order  that  they  might  agree 
Bayonne,  1565.  as  to  the  policy  they  intended  to  adopt  towards 
Protestantism.  A  "  Holy  Alliance  "  of  this  nature  would  have 
strengthened  her  own  position  in  France.  To  gain  this  end, 
she  was  anxious  to  have  interviews  with  the  Emperor  of 
Germany,  the  King  of  the  Romans,  and,  above  all,  the  King 
of  Spain.  "  My  aim,"  she  wrote  on  November  9,  1563,  to  the 
Bishop  of  Limoges,  one  of  her  ambassadors,  "  is  none  other 

213 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

than  to  see  whether  we,  who  are  the  greatest  and  most  powerful 
of  Christian  Princes,  cannot,  if  we  meet  together,  come  to 
some  agreement,  and  unite  in  order  to  secure  the  peace  and 
tranquillity  of  Christendom  by  some  better  method  than  that 
of  taking  up  arms."  But  the  Catholic  sovereigns  did  not 
respond  to  her  overtures.  The  King  of  Spain  and  his  lieutenant 
the  Duke  of  Alba,  who  were  combating  a  revolt  of  the  Protest- 
ants in  the  Netherlands,  cared  only  for  one  thing  :  that  the 
King  of  France  should  strengthen  them  by  stifling  heresy  in 
his  own  kingdom.  "  I  can  see  quite  clearly,"  Catherine  replied, 
"  that  the  Duke  of  Alba  would  like  everybody  to  be  joining 
in  the  dance  with  his  master.  But,  for  our  part,  as  God  by 
His  good  grace  has  allowed  us  to  escape  from  it,  I  am  content 
never  to  return  to  it  again  if  I  can  help  it."  Philip  II  was  not 
anxious  to  have  an  interview,  and  wanted  to  know  beforehand 
what  would  be  the  outcome  of  it.  But  owing  to  the  persistence 
of  Catherine  and  his  wife,  Elizabeth,  he  at  length  unwillingly 
consented.  "  This  interview  has  been  postponed  for  various 
reasons,"  he  wrote  to  Granvelle,  "  but  I  have  given  in  at  last 
to  the  importunity  of  the  two  Queens.  It  will,  however,  have 
no  political  object,  and  it  is  important  that  this  should  be  made 
perfectly  clear  and  the  interview  be  represented  in  its  true 
light."  Then  at  the  last  moment  he  decided  not  to  go  himself, 
but  to  send  his  wife  Elizabeth  alone  to  Bayonne  under  the 
escort  of  the  Duke  of  Alba.  The  Duke  was  given  precise 
instructions.  He  was  to  insist  most  emphatically  that  the 
King  of  France  should  take  energetic  measures  to  suppress 
heresy  in  his  kingdom  ;  the  Protestant  ministers  were  to  be 
driven  out ;  Protestant  worship,  whether  public  or  private, 
was  to  be  formally  forbidden  ;  all  Calvinist  judges  and  officials 
were  to  be  dismissed  ;  and  the  decrees  of  the  Council  of  Trent, 
which  had  just  come  to  a  conclusion,  and  the  validity  of  which 
French  jurists  refused  to  acknowledge,  on  the  plea  that  they 
were  contrary  to  the  law  of  the  land,  were  to  be  promulgated. 
A  tall,  straight,  thin  man,  with  hollow  cheeks  and  a  long  sallow 
face  lit  by  two  keen  black  eyes,  the  Duke  of  Alba,  who  was 
fifty-seven  at  this  time,  was  ready  to  play  his  part  with 
brutal  severity. 

The  meeting  took  place  in  June.     From  the  beginning  the 
214 


BLOODSTAINED    ANARCHY 

Duke  of  Alba  conjured  Charles  IX  "  to  chastise  the  offences 
which    were    every    day    committed    in    his    kingdom."     But 
Charles  IX,  who  was  beginning  to  think  for  himself,  answered 
evasively,  "  I  do  not  wish  to  take  up  arms — that  would  mean 
the   ruin   of  my   country."     With   Catherine   de'   Medici  the 
discussion  was  very  strenuous.     The   Spaniard  attacked  the 
question  resolutely,  and  demanded  rigorous  measures  against 
the  heretics.     "  You  must  banish  this  sect  from  France,"  he 
exclaimed,  "  the  King,  your  son,  has  no  alternative."    Catherine 
answered  by  suggesting  a  League  with  the  Emperor  Maximilian. 
"  That  is  impracticable,"  the  Duke  replied,  and  the  debate 
grew   hot.     Alba   declared   that   I'Hopital   was   a   Huguenot. 
"  Indeed  he  is  not !  "  the  Queen  retorted.     "  You  are  the  only 
person  in  France,  Madam,  who  is  of  that  opinion,"  answered 
the  Duke.     On  the  question  of  the  Council  of  Trent  the  dis- 
cussion  was   equally   futile.     Catherine   evaded   the   issue   by 
consenting  to  appoint  a  Commission  to   decide  whether  "the 
decrees  that  had  been  passed  by  it  were  in  any  wise    hostile 
to  the  liberties  of  the  Galilean  Church."     On  the  whole  the 
interview  was  fruitless.     A  last  solemn  conference  was  held 
on  June  30.     In  order  to  give  more  weight  to  her  declarations, 
which  were  those  of  the  Government,  Catherine  summoned  the 
chief  leaders  of  the  Catholic  party,  the  Constable  Montmorency, 
the   Duke   of  Montpensier,    and   the   Cardinals   of  Guise   and 
Bourbon,  to  the  meeting,  at  which  Charles  IX  was  present. 
Montmorency  made  a  speech,  and  summing  up  the  feelings  of 
his  whole  party,  declared  that  whilst  they  were  all  good  Catholics 
they  regarded  civil  war  as  dangerous  and  uncertain  ;   the  King 
would  nevertheless  be  capable  of  suppressing  heresy.     These 
last  words  were  vague,  and  were  only  uttered  to  save  appearances. 
In  a  letter  to  Philip  II  dated  July  6,  Catherine  repeated  this 
declaration  :    "  You  may  rest  assured,"  she  wrote,   "  of  our 
good-will  and  zeal  in  the  cause  of  our  religion  and  of  our  desire 
to  see  all  things  conducing  to  the  service  of  God — a  matter 
which  we  shall  never  forget  but  will  endeavour  so  to  carry  out 
as  to  do  His  will."     But  at  the  same  momxcnt  she  wrote  to  the 
King's  ambassadors  abroad  :  "  Their  Majesties  in  no  way  either 
desired  or  arranged  to  alter  any  of  the  promises  made  (to  the 
Protestants)  by  the  edicts  of  pacification  and  the  declarations 

215 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

which  have  since  been  published  !  "  Thus  both  sides  failed 
in  attaining  their  object,  Catherine  in  her  project  of  a  League, 
and  the  Duke  of  Alba  in  his  attempt  to  drag  the  French  Govern- 
ment into  a  policy  of  violence. 

This  interview,  however,  the  details  of  which  were  not  made 
public,  produced  great  anxiety  among  the  Huguenots,  who 
were  convinced  that  their  extermination  had  been  demanded — 
in  which  they  were  perfectly  right — and  that  it  had  been  deter- 
mined, which  was  not  the  case.  After  the  massacre  of  Saint 
Bartholomew,  ten  years  later,  however,  the  Conference  of 
Bayonne  appeared  in  a  somewhat  sinister  light.  But  in  reality, 
when  the  Duke  of  Alba  consulted  some  French  Catholics  upon 
the  best  means  of  stamping  out  heresy  in  France,  the  Duke 
of  Montpensier's  confessor  replied,  "  The  shortest  way  would 
be  to  behead  Conde,  the  Admiral,  d'Andelot,  La  Rochefoucauld, 
and  Grammont."  This  was  all  that  was  said  on  the  subject, 
and  it  was  merely  the  private  opinion  of  an  irresponsible  person. 

From  Bayonne,  the  Court  returned  to  Paris  through  Nerac, 
Angouleme,  Tours,  and  Blois.  At  Moulins  Michel  de  I'Hopital 
Return  of  made  the  authorities  sign  one  of  the  grand  ordin- 

the  Court.  ances   supplementing  the   Ordinance   of  Orleans 

and  continuing  the  reforms  required  to  simplify  the  administra- 
tion of  justice.  In  Paris  they  found  religious  hatreds  and 
passions  in  a  more  excited  condition  than  ever.  The  Guises 
and  the  Chatillons  hurled  threats  and  defiance  at  each  other 
daily.  The  Duke  of  Aumale  was  talking  of  challenging  Coligny  ; 
and  d'Andelot,  it  was  said,  wanted  to  have  d'Aumale  assas- 
sinated. In  the  provinces  the  mutual  hatred  between  the 
Catholics  and  the  Protestants  was  at  its  height.  The  Edict 
of  Amboise,  which  had  been  carried  out  with  brutal  rigour, 
had  in  some  places  given  rise  to  a  fierce  reaction.  At  Castres, 
royalist  troops  invaded  the  town  and  reinstated  the  priests  and 
nuns,  forcing  the  Protestants  to  hold  their  services  secretly 
in  garrets,  and  removing  all  the  arms  and  pieces  of  artillery 
with  which  the  Huguenots  had  previously  furnished  the  place. 
In  Provence  the  Protestants  were  banished  after  being  forced 
to  sell  their  goods,  and  the  sheriff  of  Troyes  forbade  any 
Protestant  meetings  to  be  held.  But  in  other  cases  the  heretics 
remained  masters  of  the  situation,  and  refused  to  acknowledge 
216 


BLOODSTAINED    ANARCHY 

the  edicts.  "  We  have  no  power,"  wrote  Bourneuf  and  Maspa- 
rault  from  Saintonge,  "  to  enforce  the  observation  of  the  edict. 
Not  a  single  cleric  has  the  courage  to  risk  returning  to  the 
villages  and  unfortified  towns,  and  no  officer  of  the  law  dares 
to  do  his  duty !  "  From  Thouars,  Monsieur  de  Sanzay  wrote: 
"  There  are  a  hundred  parishes  in  which  divine  service  has  not 
been  held  for  two  years."  Here  and  there  the  clergy  were 
murdered,  and  the  gentlemen,  it  was  said,  were  selling  their 
goods  to  buy  arms,  whilst  quarrels  resulting  in  bloodshed  were 
too  numerous  to  be  counted. 

The  truth  had  at  length  to  be  faced.  If  the  repressive  policy 
of  Henry  II  and  Francis  II  had  failed  to  arrest  the  development 
Change  in  c>f   Protestantism,    the    conciliatory    method    in- 

Catherine's  augurated  by  Catherine  de'  Medici  had  produced 
policy.  effects    very  much    more    disastrous.      Disorder, 

anarchy,  civil  war,  and  all  the  worst  conditions  of  a  State 
that  was  falling  to  pieces  were  the  lamentable  results.  The 
country  was  going  to  ruin.  A  gradual  change  then  began  to 
take  place  in  the  mind  of  Catherine  de'  Medici,  who  was 
thoroughly  discouraged.  So  nothing,  it  seemed,  could  be  done 
with  the  Protestants,  who  were  clearly  aiming — and  this  convic- 
tion little  by  little  gained  ground  in  her  mind — at  nothing  less 
than  a  usurpation  of  power  with  the  object  of  destroying 
Catholicism  and  forcing  the  French  people  to  become  Huguenots, 
whether  they  liked  it  or  not  !  Her  travels  through  France 
had  given  the  old  Queen  the  opportunity  of  realizing  that  they 
were,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  in  the  minority,  and  that  the  Catholics 
were  the  more  numerous  and  the  stronger  party.  Surely  then 
it  was  unnecessary  to  submit  to  the  tyranny  of  the  heretics  ! 
Charles  IX,  who  was  young  and  ardent,  began  to  feel  more 
exasperated  than  anyone,  and  in  a  discussion  with  Coligny  he 
lost  his  temper  and  exclaimed  angrily,  "  Not  so  very  long  ago 
you  were  content  with  being  tolerated  by  the  Catholics,  but 
now  you  demand  equality  !  Soon  you  will  want  the  power 
for  yourselves  alone,  and  will  wish  to  drive  us  out  of  the 
country  !  "  He  understood  the  state  of  affairs.  Anger  against 
the  rebels  rose  high,  and  the  imprudent  and  provocative  con- 
duct of  the  Protestants  aggravated  the  exasperation  of  the 
Government. 

217 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

The  Reformers,  regardless  of  the  fact  that  in  a  number  of 
places  their  co-religionists  were  violating  the  edicts  and  making 
themselves  absolute  masters,  made  loud  complaints  that  in 
many  districts  the  Edict  of  Amboise  was  not  carried  out,  to 
the  detriment  of  the  members  of  their  faith,  as  indeed  was  true. 
For  even  murders  of  Huguenots  were  allowed  to  pass  unpunished. 
To  these  complaints,  Catherine's  Government  returned  curt 
and  dilatory  answers.  "  I  can  do  nothing  more  here,"  exclaimed 
Conde,  beside  himself  with  rage,  and  he  thereupon  left  the 
Court.  Conferences  between  the  Protestant  leaders  were  held 
under  his  roof  in  the  Chateau  de  Valery  and  in  Coligny's  home 
at  Chatillon,  at  which  they  came  to  the  definite  conclusion  that 
they  were  being  deceived,  and  that  the  Edict  of  Amboise  was 
not  being  carried  out,  owing  more  to  the  powerlessness  than 
to  the  ill-will  of  the  Government ;  they  were  not  allowed  to 
practise  their  religion  in  a  town  even  after  they  had  got  per- 
mission from  the  sheriff.  The  question  was  raised  as  to  the 
objective  of  the  foreign  troops  which  the  King  was  summoning 
from  Switzerland  and  Germany.  A  rumour  was  current  that 
the  Government  intended  to  arrest  the  Protestant  leaders. 
Clearly  they  were  menaced,  and  under  these  circumstances  it 
would  be  wiser  to  steal  a  march  upon  the  Government  than 
to  wait  for  it  to  open  the  attack.  D'Andelot  made  the  daring 
proposal  that  they  should  attempt  the  manoeuvre  which  had 
succeeded  in  Scotland  against  Mary  Stuart,  and  kidnap  the 
King  and  the  royal  family  at  Monceaux  !  Coligny  objected 
strongly  to  the  idea,  but  the  majority  were  in  favour  of  the 
scheme,  and  it  was  decided  that  troops  should  be  secretly 
collected  with  the  object  of  surrounding  Montceaux. 

Catherine  de'  Medici  was  warned  in  time,  and  she  barely 
managed  to  beat  a  hurried  retreat  from  Montceaux  on  September 
Protestant  ^^'  l^^*^'  ^^^  take  shelter  behind  the  walls  of 
attempt  to  Meaux.  But  the  sense  of  shame,  anger,  and 
kidnap  the  humiliation  with  which  this  attempt  and  the 
Court,  1567.  flight  it  necessitated  filled  a  Queen  who  was 
extremely  sensitive  on  the  score  of  her  dignity,  already  sorely 
wounded,  and  its  even  deeper  effect  upon  an  impetuous  young 
man  like  Charles  IX,  cannot  well  be  imagined.  "  Never  should 
I  have  believed,"  wrote  Catherine  to  the  Duke  of  Savoy, 
218 


BLOODSTAINED    ANARCHY 

"  that  such  great  and  grievous  designs  against  their  King 
could  have  occurred  to  the  minds  of  subjects."  "  '  They  shall 
not  give  me  any  further  alarms  of  the  kind,'  exclaimed 
Charles  IX,  with  oaths  of  unseemly  vigour,"  wrote  Bouchefort, 
in  a  letter  to  Renee  of  Ferrara.  "  '  I  will  go  into  their  houses 
and  even  into  their  beds  to  fetch  out  those  who  furnish 
them !  '  "  Tavannes  was  right — the  Protestants  had  gone  too 
far  in  conceiving  such  a  plan,  and  in  failing  to  carry  it  out,  not 
far  enough.  The  attempt  was  destined  to  weigh  heavily  on 
the  future,  inasmuch  as  it  definitively  alienated  Catherine  from 
the  Huguenots,  and  more  especially  because  it  filled  her  mind 
with  a  perpetual  terror  of  abduction  and,  perhaps,  of  a  general 
massacre. 

Closely  guarded  by  6000  Swiss,  the  King  and  the  Court 
returned  to  Paris.  Conde,  feeling  that  a  fresh  civil  war — the 
Second  second — was   upon   the    point   of  breaking   out. 

Civil  War.  rallied   his   followers,  and   collecting   a   force   of 

4000  men,  began  to  send  out  scouts  round  Paris.  With  16,000 
men  Constable  Montmorency,  Marshal  de  Damville,  and  the 
Duke  of  Aumale,  left  the  city  in  order  to  surround  him.  They 
reached  him  at  Saint-Denis  on  November  10,  1567.  The  aged 
Montmorency,  notwithstanding  his  weight  of  seventy-four 
years,  charged  like  a  young  man.  He  was  mortally  wounded 
and  fell  from  his  horse.  Three  days  afterwards  he  died  !  The 
Huguenots  did  not  hold  their  ground  ;  at  the  end  of  an  hour 
they  took  to  flight,  and  their  troops  disbanded  themselves. 
Hostilities  dragged  on  for  some  time.  But  eventually  Michel 
de  I'Hopital  proposed  to  make  peace.  "  The  good  pilot  never 
insists  upon  fighting  the  storm,"  he  remarked  sadly ;  "he 
lowers  his  sails  and  waits."  The  Protestants  gave  way  and 
a  peace  was  signed  at  Longjumeau  on  February  23,  1568,  by 
the  terms  of  which  the  Edict  of  Amboise  was  ratified,  and  its 
execution  promised.  But  the  Catholics  raised  endless  objec- 
tions ;  was  it  seemly  that  the  King  should  treat  with  rebels,  his 
subjects,  on  terms  of  equality,  and  give  way  to  them  out  of 
weakness  ?  This  peace  was  destined  to  be  the  Chancellor's 
last  success.  The  years  that  had  passed  had  brought  a  change 
in  men's  ideas,  and,  as  his  policy  had  failed,  the  time  for  concilia- 
tion and  liberalism,  which  had  clearly  proved  disastrous,  was 

219 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

over.  "It  is  you,"  exclaimed  Catherine,  who  was  now  dis- 
illusioned, "  it  is  you,  who  with  your  fine  words  about  modera- 
tion and  justice  have  landed  us  where  we  are  !  "  At  the  end 
of  the  month  I'Hopital  gave  up  the  seals  and  left  the  Court  in 
disgrace. 

Everybody  felt  that  the  Peace  of  Longjumeau  was  nothing 
more  than  a  truce.  And  as  far  as  the  provinces  were  concerned, 
it  mattered  little  whether  the  country  were  at  peace  or  at  war, 
for  the  state  of  anarchy  remained  unchanged,  with  mutual 
intolerance,  surprises,  and  massacres.  After  the  incident  at 
Montceaux,  Conde  and  the  Protestant  leaders  felt  that  it  was 
out  of  the  question  for  them  to  return  to  Court ;  their  position 
there  would  have  been  too  insecure.  In  all  their  discussions 
the  Catholics  kept  reiterating  that  the  evil  sprang  from  five  or 
six  leaders,  and  that  if  these  were  suppressed  there  would  be 
a  change  for  the  better.  This  opinion  gained  ground,  and  was 
far  from  reassuring  for  the  Protestants.  Conde  accordingly 
retired  to  La  Rochelle  with  the  Chatillons.  They  were  joined 
by  their  followers,  and  almost  imperceptibly  a  Protestant  army 
was  formed.  The  fiery  Jeanne  d'Albret  brought  her  son,  Henry 
of  Beam,  the  future  Henry  IV,  who  was  then  fifteen  years  old. 
The  third  war  was  on  the  point  of  breaking  out. 

The  Government  thereupon  threw  off  the  mask,  and  casting 
away  all  show  of  forbearance,  published  an  edict  on  September 
Third  28,  1568,  unconditionally  forbidding  the  exercise 

Civil  War.  of  the  reformed  faith  in  France  in  any  form  whatso- 

ever, ordering  the  Protestant  ministers  to  leave  the  country 
within  a  fortnight,  and  excluding  all  Calvinists  from  public 
office.  This  was  a  return  to  the  repressive  policy  of  Henry  II. 
Conde's  only  reply  was  to  set  out  on  the  march  with  his  army 
of  21,000  men,  including  3000  cavalry,  representing  the 
largest  force  the  Protestants  had  yet  been  able  to  raise.  The 
Government  with  difficulty  collected  20,000  men  whom  they 
dispatched  to  meet  Conde  under  the  command  of  the  Duke  of 
Anjou,  the  King's  younger  brother,  the  future  Henry  III,  with 
Tavannes  as  his  lieutenant.  For  a  long  time  the  two  armies 
watched  each  other's  movements,  manoeuvring  and  counter- 
manoeuvring,  and  not  daring  to  open  battle.  The  conflict 
eventually  took  place  at  Jarnac  on  March  13,  1569,  and  was 
220 


BLOODSTAINED    ANARCHY 

in  the  nature  of  a  surprise.  Conde  led  a  charge  at  the  head 
of  250  men  against  2500,  and  was  surrounded.  A  kick  from 
a  horse  broke  his  leg.  His  charger  fell  and  he  was  brought  to 
the  ground  ;  he  was  just  giving  up  his  sword  when  a  gentleman 
named  Montesquiou,  came  up  behind  him  and  shattered  his 
skull  with  a  pistol  shot.  Thus,  at  the  age  of  nine-and-thirty 
Death  of  fell  this  prince,  a  brilliant  and  inspiring  general, 

Conde.  a    supple    and    gracious    man,    self-willed    and 

obstinate,  but  frivolous  and  unstable.  In  the  Bibliotheque 
Nationale  a  letter  has  been  preserved  which  was  found  in  his 
pocket  on  the  field  of  battle,  and  which  Jeanne  d'Albret  had 
written  to  him  on  the  very  morning  of  the  fight  on  the  subject 
of  her  son  Henry.     This  letter  is  stained  with  Conde's  blood  ! 

The  disaster  of  Jarnac  and  the  loss  of  their  leader  dis- 
couraged the  Protestants.  They  could  no  longer  pretend,  if 
they  rebelled  again,  that  they  proposed  to  deliver  the  King 
from  tyranny,  for  they  had  fought  against  the  monarch's  own 
brother.  The  fact  that  they  had  had  a  prince  of  the  blood 
to  lead  them  had  saved  appearances  hitherto  ;  but  for  the 
moment  they  were  deprived  of  this  advantage.  Jeanne  d'Albret 
hastened  to  present  her  son,  the  young  Henry  of  Beam,  and 
her  nephew,  Henry  of  Conde,  to  the  Calvinists.  The  two 
cousins  were  about  the  same  age — fifteen  and  sixteen  years  old 
respectively.  Jeanne  harangued  her  co-religionists  at  Saintes 
and  tried  to  raise  their  spirits.  Conde  was  succeeded  as  active 
leader  by  Coligny,  a  man  of  a  calmer  temperament,  more 
deliberate  and  more  mature,  but  lacking  his  predecessor's 
vigorous  qualities.  As  his  brother  d'Andelot  had  died  two 
months  after  the  battle  of  Jarnac,  Coligny  had  become  the 
virtual  head  of  the  Protestant  party  in  France. 

He  marched  against  Poitiers  with  the  intention  of  making 
for  Paris,  but  lost  seven  weeks  and  3000  men  in  besieging  the 
Battle  of  former  place  which  he  failed  to  take  in  the  end. 

Moneontour,  The  Duke  of  Anjou,  still  accompanied  by 
1569.  Tavannes,  was    marching    against  him  with    an 

army.  The  two  forces  met  at  Moneontour  on  October  3,  1569. 
After  a  moment  of  indecision,  the  Protestant  lines  wavered,  then 
broke  and  fled.  A  veritable  massacre  took  place,  and  some  5000 
or  6000  men  were  left  lying  upon  the  field.     Coligny  fled  to 

221 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

Niort  and  from  thence  went  south,  where  he  raised  fresh  recruits 
with  the  intention  of  making  his  way  back  towards  Paris  from 
the  east.  He  was  endowed  with  the  patience,  the  constancy 
under  disaster,  and  the  cahn  decision  which  inspire  troops 
with  confidence.  Simple  in  his  manners  and  easy  of  approach, 
although  his  face,  while  extremely  sweet  in  expression,  had  a 
touch  of  melancholy,  he  gained  influence  by  his  dignity  and 
his  absence  of  personal  ambition.     Men  followed  him  readily. 

In  July,  1570,  he  reached  Charite-sur-Loire.  The  Protestants, 
though  beaten,  were  ever  ready  to  raise  their  heads  again.  But 
at  this  juncture  the  Government  was  in  a  most  pitiable  plight. 
They  had  no  money,  for,  after  several  years  of  universal  dis- 
order, the  taxes  had  ceased  to  come  in,  and  they  did  not  know 
how  to  subsist ;  it  was  impossible  to  raise  troops  or  to  pay 
them.  Were  they  destined  to  find  themselves  at  the  mercy 
of  the  Huguenot  leader,  they  asked  themselves  anxiously.  It 
is  possible  that  they  may  have  exaggerated  the  critical  nature 
of  their  situation,  but  in  the  dilemma  in  which  they  found 
themselves,  Catherine  and  Charles  IX  came  to  the  conclusion 
that  it  was  necessary  to  treat  for  peace  at  all  costs  and  accept 
any  terms  that  were  demanded,  however  exorbitant — and 
Peace  o£  they  were  indeed  disastrous.     By  the  Peace  of 

Saint-Ger-  Saint-Germain  of  August  8, 1570,  it  was  stipulated 

main,  1570.  that  liberty  of  conscience  and  freedom  of  worship 
should  be  definitely  accorded  to  the  Protestants  throughout 
the  country  with  the  exception  of  Paris  and  in  the  immediate 
neighbourhood  of  the  Court.  A  general  amnesty  was  pro- 
nounced in  favour  of  the  rebels  ;  the  Huguenots  were  to  be 
eligible  for  all  public  offices,  and  for  a  space  of  two  years,  as 
guarantees  for  the  execution  of  the  treaty,  they  were  to  receive 
four  cities  as  guarantees — La  Rochelle,  Montauban,  Cognac,  and 
La  Charite.  In  return  for  these  concessions  Catholicism  was 
to  be  re-established  in  all  the  districts  where  it  had  been  sup- 
pressed by  the  Protestants.  Thus  at  one  fell  swoop  the  King 
granted  full  liberty  to  the  heretics.  It  was  the  first  time  such 
a  thing  had  been  known  in  France  !  The  King  had  actually 
made  a  treaty  with  rebels  whom  he  had  conquered,  and  had 
submitted  to  their  terms  ;  and  he  had  given  them  towns  as 
a  guarantee — a  monstrous  proceeding,  indeed  !  The  Catholics 
222 


BLOODSTAINED    ANARCHY 

were  dumbfounded  and  called  the  peace  "  a  humiliating  capitula- 
tion." Monluc  wrote  :  "  We  had  beaten  our  enemies  over  and 
over  again  ;  we  were  winning  by  force  of  arms,  but  they 
triumphed  by  means  of  their  diabolical  writings !  "  The 
Catholic  Powers  protested,  but  Charles  IX  replied  that  he  had 
learnt  "  by  experience  that  it  was  impossible  to  end  the  trouble 
by  force  of  arms,"  and  that  he  had  acted  under  the  pressure 
of  necessity.  To  the  Pope  Catherine  wrote  that  the  King  had 
made  peace  with  the  Huguenots  "  the  better  to  arrange  every- 
thing in  accordance  with  his  wishes."  The  moderates  remarked 
philosophically  in  the  words  of  Pasquier  that  the  Government 
had  "  ended  where  they  ought  to  have  begun." 

But  this  time  the  Protestants  were  satisfied,  and  peace  was 
established.  Catherine  seized  the  moment  of  respite  to  arrange 
Marriage  o!  a  match  for  Charles  IX,  and  married  him  to 
Charles  IX.  Elizabeth  of  Austria,  daughter  of  the  Emperor 
Maximilian  II.  The  Protestants  talked  vaguely  of  a  marriage 
between  their  prince,  Henry  of  Beam,  and  Elizabeth  of  England, 
but  the  Queen  decided  to  give  him  her  own  daughter,  Margaret 
of  Valois,  and  proposed  her  second  son,  the  Duke  of  Anjou, 
as  a  husband  for  the  Queen  of  England.  On  the  latter  point, 
however,  she  did  not  succeed.  She  was  extremely  fond  of  the 
Duke  of  Anjou,  who  was  her  favourite  son  and  the  apple  of 
her  eye,  a  gentle  boy,  whom  she  had  well  in  hand.  As  early 
as  the  Conference  of  Bayonne,  she  had  tried  to  arrange  a  match 
for  him  with  a  Spanish  Infanta,  but  without  success.  England 
kept  the  question  in  suspense  for  some  time  as  a  matter  of 
policy.  But  the  union  was  impracticable ;  Elizabeth,  an 
ardent  Protestant,  was  thirty-seven,  whilst  the  Duke  of  Anjou, 
a  no  less  ardent  Catholic,  who  had  every  intention  of  remaining 
true  to  his  faith  in  England,  and  even  of  endeavouring  to  restore 
it  in  that  country,  was  only  nineteen.  The  negotiations  had 
no  result. 

But  the  suggested  marriage  between  Henry  of  Beam  and 
Margaret  of  Valois  was  a  very  different  affair.  Catherine  saw 
various  advantages  in  this  alliance ;  she  would  be  giving  her 
daughter  to  a  King,  the  King  of  Navarre  ;  she  would  be  laying 
hands  upon  the  nominal  chief  of  the  Huguenots,  a  prince  of 
the  blood,  with  the  vague  hope  of  one  day  converting  him  ; 

223 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

and  she  would  be  realizing  a  project  which  Henry  II  had  nursed 
for  many  a  long  year.  Difficulties  arose  in  the  first  place  in  con- 
nexion with  Jeanne  d'Albret  on  the  score  of  religion.  Jeanne 
hoped  that  Margaret  of  Valois  would  become  a  Protestant,  but 
Margaret  refused.  Catherine  had  then  insisted  upon  the 
marriage  being  celebrated  in  church,  to  which  Jeanne  would 
not  consent.  But  in  the  end  the  Queen  of  Navarre,  who  in  her 
heart  was  rather  proud  of  the  fact  that  her  son  was  to  marry 
the  sister  of  the  King  of  France,  gave  way.  It  was  from  Rome 
that  protests  were  next  raised,  and  the  Pope  demanded  that 
Henry  of  Beam  should  make  profession  of  the  Catholic  faith. 
Catherine  de'  Medici  paid  no  attention  to  this  and  persuaded 
the  Cardinal  of  Bourbon  to  perform  the  ceremony  without 
waiting  for  the  dispensation.  This  marriage  determined  the 
reconciliation  between  the  Court  and  the  Protestant  party. 
Jeanne  d'Albret  and  her  son  came  to  Blois,  as  did  also  Coligny 
(September  18,  1571)  with  over  500  Protestant  nobles.  They 
were  received  as  cordially  as  possible.  Owing  to  a  certain  lack 
of  decision  in  their  ideas,  Catherine  and  Charles  IX  gave  them- 
selves up  entirely  to  the  peaceful  sentiments  of  the  moment. 
Charles  IX  The  young  King  was  touched  by  Coligny's  cha- 
and  Coligny.  racter.  The  fine  melancholy  features  and  gentle, 
deep-set  eyes  of  the  Admiral  attracted  him,  and  he  felt  himself 
moved  by  a  sudden  sympathy  for  his  upright,  honest  character. 
During  the  long  conversations  they  had  together,  the  young 
King  of  twenty  gained  confidence  in  the  veteran  of  fifty,  who  had 
seen  so  many  wars  and  had  lived  under  four  reigns.  Their 
intimacy  increased  rapidly,  and  Coligny  took  advantage  of 
it  to  impart  to  Charles  IX  a  project  which  he  had  deeply  at 
heart.  The  Netherlands  had  rebelled  against  Philip  II,  and 
Coligny  suggested  that  France  should  support  them,  with  the 
object  of  laying  hands  on  the  French  provinces,  which  might 
be  induced  to  return  to  their  allegiance.  By  this  means  the 
martial  ardour  of  the  nobility  would  be  engrossed  by  a  foreign 
war,  whereas  otherwise  they  might  seek  satisfaction  in  civil 
conflicts.  "  If  we  do  not  give  them  amusement  abroad,"  said 
Coligny,  "  they  will  begin  their  quarrels  at  home  again." 
Moreover,  he  added,  he  felt  that  the  King  must  be  extremely 
irritated  by  Philip  II's  proceedings,  his  constant  remonstrances, 
224 


BLOODSTAINED    ANARCHY 

and  the  protective  attitude  he  had  assumed.  Had  not  the 
Duke  of  Alba  offered  to  come  and  command  the  Cathohc  forces 
in  France  ?  Did  not  Philip  II  negotiate  with  the  Guises 
without  consulting  the  Court,  and  did  he  not  act  as  though  he 
were  master  of  France  ?  An  attack  upon  him  would  be  perfectly 
legitimate.     Charles  IX  lent  a  ready  ear  to  these  suggestions. 

But  the  Catholics  protested  vehemently.  Not  only,  it 
seemed,  had  the  Treaty  of  Saint-Germain  given  everything 
to  the  Protestants,  but  now  the  King  himself  was  ready  to  go 
over  to  them.  The  Guises  left  Blois.  Already  the  new  Duke, 
Henry  of  Guise,  the  son  of  Duke  Francis,  a  brilliant,  ambitious 
young  man,  of  great  courage  and  strength  of  will,  and  his 
brother,  Mayenne,  were  becoming  conspicuous  among  them. 
The  hatred  this  family  felt  for  Coligny,  the  reputed  murderer 
of  Duke  Francis,  was  aggravated  by  the  menacing  popularity 
of  the  Admiral  at  Court. 

The  marriage  contract  between  Margaret  of  Valois  and 
Henry  of  Beam  was  signed  at  Blois  on  April  11,  1572,  and  the 
date  of  the  wedding  itself  was  fixed  for  August.  Jeanne  d'Albret 
was  not  destined  to  witness  the  ceremony,  for  she  died  somewhat 
suddenly  in  June.  "  She  was  a  great  Queen,"  says  d'Aubigne, 
"  who  had  nothing  feminine  about  her  except  her  sex.  Her 
whole  soul  was  absorbed  by  virile  interests,  and  she  had  a  heart 
that  was  undaunted  by  adversity." 

Coligny  turned  Charles  IX's  favourable  attitude  to  account, 
and  in  his  capacity  as  Admiral  began  to  make  military  prepara- 
Coligny  the  tions,  and  raise  troops  for  the  proposed  war  in 
head  oJ  the  the  Netherlands.  His  influence  at  this  juncture 
Government,  was  preponderant  at  Court,  and  he  was  regarded 
as  the  head  of  the  Government.  But  a  strong  opposition  began 
to  be  formed  against  him.  It  was  natural  that  Catherine  de' 
Medici  and  her  counsellors  should  regard  his  power  with  appre- 
hension. As  the  Chancellor  de  Birague  subsequently  explained 
to  the  Venetian  ambassador,  Giovanni  Michiel,  Coligny  was 
actually  the  undisputed  leader  of  the  Protestant  cause  ;  the 
Protestants  never  carried  a  royal  edict  into  execution  without 
securing  a  favourable  opinion  on  the  matter  from  their  leader, 
and  they  were  in  a  position  to  raise  for  him  a  force  of  7000  or 
8000  cavalry  and  25,000  or  30,000  infantry  within  one  month — 

p  225 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

numbers  which  the  King  could  only  collect  in  four.  Thus  the 
country  had  another  master  besides  the  King — an  intolerable 
state  of  affairs.  As  far  as  the  Netherlands  were  concerned, 
moreover,  Coligny's  plan  of  war  was  absolutely  unreasonable. 
The  kingdom  was  in  debt  and  its  own  internal  troubles  had 
barely  calmed  down.  Surely  to  engage  in  a  foreign  war  against 
Spain  with  the  provinces  rising  up  in  rebellion  in  the  rear  was 
sheer  madness  ?  And  were  the  Catholics,  forsooth,  to  march 
under  the  command  of  the  very  men  they  had  conquered  at 
Jarnac  and  Moncontour,  in  order  to  help  the  Huguenot  cause 
abroad  and  thus  add  such  additional  strength  to  Coligny's 
position  in  France  that  on  his  return  he  would  be  able  to  Protes- 
tantize the  whole  country  ?  Tavannes,  in  high  dudgeon, 
threatened  to  leave  the  Court.  By  what  right,  he  demanded, 
was  Coligny  now  raising  troops  without  the  King's  command  ? 
His  preparations  were  giving  people  cause  for  alarm. 

Impatient  at  the  opposition  which  he  felt  rising  against 
him,  Coligny  asked  that  the  question  of  the  Netherlands  might 
be  settled  at  a  grand  council.  This  council  was  held,  and  the 
majority  was  against  intervention.  Coligny  was  annoyed  and 
confessed  that  he  had  promised  the  Prince  of  Orange,  the  leader 
of  the  rebels  in  the  Netherlands,  the  support  of  France,  and 
that  if  the  King  backed  out  of  the  war  he  would  be  under  the 
necessity  of  going  himself  together  with  his  followers  and  friends, 
in  order  to  fulfil  his  engagement  as  a  private  individual.  Then, 
turning  towards  Catherine  de'  Medici,  he  ended  his  speech  by 
saying,  "  The  King,  Madam,  refuses  to  enter  upon  this  war. 
God  grant  that  another  may  not  break  out,  from  which  it  will 
not  be  so  easy  for  him  to  escape  perhaps  !  "  Was  this  meant 
as  a  threat  ?  Catherine  was  startled,  and  began  to  feel  seriously 
anxious. 

August,  and  the  date  fixed  for  the  marriage  of  Henry  of 
Beam,  was  fast  approaching.  From  all  quarters  the  news  came 
Marriage  oJ  ^^^^  the  Protestant  nobility  intended  to  present 
Henry  of  themselves  en  masse  for  the  festivities.     Haunted 

B§am.  by  tjjg  dread  of  some  plan  of  kidnapping  similar 

to  the  Montceaux  incident,  or  even  worse,  Catherine  de'  Medici 
had  refused  to  allow  the  ceremony  to  take  place  in  any  small 
provincial  town  where  the  Court  would  be  at  the  mercy  of  the 
226 


BLOODSTAINED    ANARCHY 

Huguenots,  and  had  insisted  upon  Paris,  a  thickly  populated 
Catholic  city.  At  the  time  arranged  Henry  of  Beam  and  Conde 
entered  Paris  followed  by  an  escort  of  800  cavalry,  and  by  all 
the  roads  the  Protestant  gentry  made  their  way  to  the  city, 
hastening  to  take  part  in  the  festivities  which  were  to  consecrate 
the  triumph  of  their  church,  and  curious  to  behold  the  splendid 
pageant  about  to  be  unfolded.  The  influx  of  all  these  heretics 
put  the  Government  and  the  Catholics  into  a  state  of  extreme 
excitement.  Charles  IX,  alone,  who  was  still  on  the  best  of 
terms  with  Coligny,  remained  unmoved.  The  marriage,  which 
had  been  fixed  for  August  10,  was  not  celebrated  until  the  18th, 
and  in  accordance  with  custom  it  took  place  in  the  open  air 
outside  Notre  Dame,  whilst  Mass  was  said  inside  the  church 
in  the  presence  of  the  bride  alone.  The  festivities  then  followed. 
But  the  conversations  which  took  place  betrayed  the  irritable 
condition  of  men's  minds.  The  Protestants  were  filled  with 
indignation  at  the  Government's  refusal  to  interfere  in  the 
Netherlands  ;  they  kept  insisting  on  the  dilemma  pointed  out 
by  Coligny :  "  either  civil  war  or  a  foreign  war  "  ;  and  they 
were  extremely  outspoken  in  their  criticisms  of  the  King, 
Catherine  de'  Medici,  the  Catholic  leaders,  and  the  Guises. 
Among  the  Catholics,  too,  the  flood  of  discontent  rose  daily 
higher.  They  declared  that  the  Court  was  being  carried  away 
headlong  in  the  tide  of  Protestantism,  and  hinted  covertly  at 
a  fresh  stroke  of  violence  on  the  part  of  the  Huguenots,  like 
the  attempt  at  Montceaux,  which  would  aim  at  placing  the 
royal  family  entirely  in  the  hands  of  the  Protestants.  Coligny's 
position,  above  all,  aroused  their  ire,  and  the  Guises  uttered 
furious  threats  against  him.  Anger  was  seething  on  all  sides. 
A  continual  muttering  of  discontent  was  heard,  and  the  air 
was  heavy  with  two  opposing  electric  currents,  the  first  spark 
from  which  would  fire  the  mine.  This  spark  was  kindled  on 
Friday,  August  22. 

On  the  morning  of  that  day  Coligny  was  making  his  way 
to  the  Louvre  from  his  house  at  the  corner  of  the  Rue  de  I'Arbre 
Attempt  to  S^^  ^^^  *^^  ^"^  ^®  Betizy  (the  present  Rue  de 
murder  Rivoli).     As  he  was  going  down  a  narrow  street 

Coligny.  which  skirted  the  Hotel  du  Petit  Bourbon  between 

the  Rue  des  Fosses  Saint-Germain  and  the  quay,  he  bent  down 

227 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

to  arrange  his  shoe  which  was  sUpping  off  his  foot,  when  he 
was  shot  from  behind  a  small  curtained  window.  The  bullet  cut 
off  the  first  finger  of  his  left  hand,  ripped  up  his  arm,  and  entered 
his  elbow.  "  This  is  how  honest  men  are  treated  in  France  !  " 
he  exclaimed.  His  companions  rushed  towards  the  house,  and 
burst  open  the  door,  but  found  only  a  smoking  arquebuse.  The 
assassin  had  made  his  escape  in  the  rear  on  horseback.  They 
discovered  that  the  house  belonged  to  the  Guises,  that  the 
murderer,  whose  name  was  Maurevert,  was  a  member  of  their 
suite,  and  that  the  horse  had  come  out  of  their  stables.  A 
unanimous  outcry  was  raised  that  the  Guises  were  responsible 
for  the  attempt.  Coligny  was  carried  back  to  his  house,  where 
he  was  placed  under  the  charge  of  Ambroise  Pare.  The  bullet 
was  extracted  with  great  difficulty,  and  the  arm  was  badly 
mangled  in  the  operation.  The  surgeon,  however,  answered 
for  the  life  of  his  patient. 

Charles  IX  was  playing  tennis  when  the  news  of  the  crime 
was  brought  to  him.  "  Am  I  never  to  have  any  peace  !  " 
he  exclaimed,  throwing  down  his  racket  in  a  violent  fit  of  anger. 
He  returned  to  the  Louvre  where  considerable  excitement 
prevailed.  It  was  useless  to  blink  matters — the  event  which 
had  just  occurred  was  very  probably  the  signal  for  a  catastrophe. 
The  royal  palace  was  immediately  cleared,  and  the  guards  at 
the  gates  doubled. 

Coligny's  house  was  besieged  by  all  the  Protestants  in  a 
state  of  feverish  commotion — the  Prince  of  Conde,  the  King 
Agitation  in  ^^  Navarre,  the  leaders  of  the  party,  and  a  constant 
Paris.  influx  of  Huguenots  who  went  to  and  fro  asking 

for  news  amidst  a  babel  of  violent  language,  curses,  and  furious 
oaths.  Vengeance  must  be  wreaked  upon  the  Guises  at  once, 
they  kept  repeating.  They  must  be  killed  if  necessary  in  the 
presence  of  the  King  himself,  in  the  heart  of  the  Louvre.  "  They 
used  extremely  insolent  language,"  writes  Brantome,  "  declaring 
that  they  were  prepared  to  strike  and  to  kill !  "  Coligny 
expressed  a  desire  to  see  the  King,  and  the  Government,  knowing 
how  matters  stood,  thought  it  would  be  best  for  the  whole  of 
the  royal  family  to  go  to  the  Rue  de  Betizy,  as  this  courtesy 
might  perhaps  calm  the  Protestants.  The  visit  was  accordingly 
paid  in  the  afternoon,  and  Catherine  de'  Medici  together  with 
228 


BLOODSTAINED    ANARCHY 

her  two  other  sons  accompanied  Charles  IX.  "  You  feel  the 
pain,"  the  King  said,  as  he  greeted  the  Admiral,  "  but  it  is  I 
who  feel  the  grief."  And  he  assured  him  that  he  would  have 
strict  and  exemplary  justice  done  him.  He  even  proposed  to 
have  him  conveyed  to  the  Louvre,  but  Coligny  refused.  They 
discussed  matters,  and  Coligny  kept  reverting  to  the  idea  of 
an  expedition  to  the  Netherlands  as  the  sole  solution  for  the 
difficulties  of  the  existing  situation.  In  the  evening  Charles  IX 
informed  all  the  ambassadors  of  the  crime.  "  This  evil  act 
proceeded,"  he  declared,  "  from  the  hostility  between  the 
House  of  Chatillon  and  that  of  Guise,  and  I  shall  take  good  care 
to  ensure  that  they  do  not  mix  up  any  of  my  subjects  in  their 
quarrel."  He  was  doing  his  best  to  limit  the  sphere  of  danger. 
"  I  am  determined,"  he  continued,  "  to  have  justice  done  on 
such  a  scale  that  it  shall  be  a  warning  to  every  man  in  my 
kingdom." 

On  the  morning  of  the  following  day,  Saturday,  August  23, 
the  Duke  of  Guise  and  the  Duke  of  Aumale  presented  them- 
selves to  the  King  and  asked  permission  to  leave  Paris.  "  Go 
wherever  you  like,"  Charles  IX  answered  curtly,  and  as  soon 
as  their  backs  were  turned,  he  added,  "  I  shall  always  be  able 
to  find  them  again  !  "  Instead  of  taking  their  departure, 
however,  the  Guises  went  back  to  their  house,  the  Hotel  de 
Lorraine,  where  they  barricaded  themselves.  Huguenots  kept 
passing  to  and  fro  beneath  their  windows  shouting  threats  of 
death.  As  a  precaution  the  Court  sent  fifty  arquebusiers  to 
guard  Coligny  ;  an  inquiry  into  the  crime  was  instituted  and 
opened  by  de  Thou,  the  First  President. 

Meanwhile,  however,  the  excitement  among  the  Protestants 
was  increasing  every  moment.  The  house  in  the  Rue  de 
Betizy,  its  court  and  its  staircase  were  crowded  with  people 
uttering  vehement  threats.  "  That  arm  shall  cost  30,000  other 
arms  !  "  they  cried.  They  wished  to  kill  the  Guises,  if  neces- 
sary, they  repeated,  in  the  Louvre  itself,  and  they  threatened 
even  to  burst  open  its  gates  and  massacre  the  guards.  Other 
names  were  mentioned,  and  among  them  that  of  the  Duke  of 
Anjou,  who  was  accused  of  liaving  connived  at  the  crime  of 
the  Guises.  But  in  the  tumult  wliat  would  happen  to  the  King, 
the  Queen-Mother,  and  the  princes  ?     In  vain  did  Briquemaut 

229 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

try  to  put  a  stop  to  these  declarations.  The  agitation  was 
beginning  to  spread  to  the  streets,  and  the  people,  irritated  by 
the  attitude  of  the  Huguenots,  were  leaving  their  houses  and 
forming  menacing  groups  in  open  spaces  ;  some  of  them  even 
carried  arms. 

In  the  evening  a  council  was  held  in  the  apartments  of 
Catherine  de'  Medici,  at  which  the  Duke  of  Anjou,  the  Chancellor 
Agitation  of  ^^  Birague,  Nevers,  Tavannes,  and  Gondi  were 
the  Govern-  present.  They  had  to  face  the  facts  of  the  situa- 
Hient.  tion.     The  position  was  most  critical ;   they  were 

within  an  ace  of  civil  war  in  Paris,  and  in  the  midst  of  such  a 
fiery  populace  this  would  mean  nothing  short  of  butchery. 
The  lives  of  the  King  and  of  the  royal  family  were  in  danger. 
Echoes  of  the  threats  pronounced  round  Coligny's  sick  bed 
reached  them  from  without,  and  in  any  case,  civil  war,  whether 
in  Paris  or  in  the  provinces,  was  once  more  a  foregone  conclusion. 
The  council  was  in  a  great  state  of  agitation,  when  suddenly 
Bouchavannes  arrived  from  the  house  in  the  Rue  de  Betizy, 
announcing  as  a  fact  that  the  Protestants  had  decided  to 
attack  the  Louvre,  and  to  massacre  the  King,  his  brother, 
and  the  Queen-Mother  "  on  the  following  day  at  supper-time." 
What  truth  was  there  in  the  allegation  of  this  terrible  conspiracy? 
It  is  possible,  nay  probable,  that  Bouchavannes  mistook  for 
a  general  decision  the  mere  approval  expressed  by  a  few  minor 
personalities  of  a  suggested  plan  of  action.  However  this 
may  have  been,  the  effect  produced  was  terrible.  At  the 
thought  of  the  impending  catastrophe  consternation  filled  the 
breasts  of  Catherine  de'  Medici  and  her  counsellors,  who  were 
already  in  a  state  of  alarm,  and  brought  the  nervous  terror 
which  had  possessed  them  for  some  hours  to  a  climax.  They 
thought  they  were  lost.  To  order  the  arrest  of  the  conspirators 
was  impossible  ;  their  friends  would  defend  them  or  rescue 
them.  And  after  all,  as  Catherine  de'  Medici  afterwards 
explained  to  her  ambassador,  du  Ferrier,  Charles  IX  was 
"  sovereign  King  and  prince  "  and  supreme  judge  of  the  realm — • 
for  the  magistrates  only  passed  sentence  as  delegates  of  his 
unique  power.  He  had  the  right,  motu  propria,  summarily 
to  punish  all  criminals  known  to  be  such.  For  ten  years  every- 
body had  been  repeating  ad  nauseam  that  if  the  heads  of  five 
230 


BLOODSTAINED    ANARCHY 

or  six  of  the  leaders  were  forfeited,  the  diabolical  conspiracy 
of  the  heretics,  which  was  bringing  the  country  to  ruin,  would 
be  stopped  once  and  for  all.  The  hour  had  come.  They  must 
either  strike  or  perish  !  It  would  be  better  to  prevent  the  war 
that  was  on  the  verge  of  breaking  out  by  one  bold  move  than 
to  drag  on  for  months  in  all  manner  of  perils  and  miseries.  The 
Duke  of  Anjou  was  particularly  emphatic  on  this  head. 

It  only  remained  to  win  over  the  King.  A  terrible  scene 
took  place.  According  to  Pibrac,  who  was  given  a  minute 
description  of  it  afterwards,  Charles  IX,  utterly  disconcerted, 
began  by  offering  a  fierce  resistance.  He  proposed  having  the 
instigators  of  the  plot  of  which  he  was  informed  arrested,  and 
an  inquiry  opened.  But  he  was  told  that  time  pressed,  and 
that  if  the  business  were  not  stopped  within  a  few  hours,  the 
royal  family  was  lost.  "  But  since  the  conspiracy  has  been 
discovered,"  exclaimed  the  King,  "  surely  we  can  ward  it  off 
without  having  recourse  to  murder  !  "  "  There  are  too  many 
of  them,"  was  the  retort.  "  You  might  capture  one  or  two, 
and  even  so  you  would  be  obliged  to  kill  them,  and  you  would 
not  escape  a  fourth  civil  war."  For  two  hours  the  discussion 
continued,  passionate  and  breathless,  Charles  IX  holding  out, 
in  feverish  agitation,  with  Catherine,  the  Duke  of  Anjou,  and 
the  rest  arguing  and  imploring,  beside  themselves  with  terror. 
At  last  the  King  gave  way,  but  with  a  cry  of  rage  and  fury, 
exclaiming :  "  Well  then,  kill  them  all,  that  not  a  single  man 
may  be  left  to  reproach  me  !  " 

The  die  was  cast !  In  the  mind  of  Catherine  and  of  her 
counsellors  it  was  merely  a  question  of  the  death  of  five  or  six 
men — Coligny,  the  Count  de  la  Rochefoucauld,  Teligny,  Caumont 
la  Force,  Montgommery,  and  the  Marquis  of  Resnel.  Prepara- 
tions for  the  deed  were  made.  The  Provost  of  the  Merchants 
was  summoned  to  the  Louvre.  He  was  informed  of  the 
conspiracy  that  was  threatening  the  King,  and  ordered  to 
have  all  the  gates  of  Paris  closed  immediately,  to  call  out  and 
arm  all  the  city  militia,  to  concentrate  them  in  the  squares  and 
on  the  quays,  to  mass  the  artillery  in  front  of  the  Hotel  de 
Ville  so  that  it  might  be  used  whenever  it  was  found  necessary, 
and  to  await  further  orders.  For  the  execution  of  the  sentence 
passed  upon  Coligny,  none  were  better  fitted  than  the  Guises. 

231 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

Duke  Henry  and  the  Duke  of  Aumale  were  summoned,  and 
the  mission,  which  they  accepted,  was  confided  to  them.  The 
parties  entrusted  with  the  other  executions  were  also  appointed. 
Unfortunately  the  instructions  issued  were  not  sufficiently 
precise.  It  was  arranged  that  the  signal  should  be  given 
on  the  following  day,  August  24,  the  Feast  of  Saint  Bartholomew, 
at  three  o'clock  in  the  morning  by  the  bell  of  the  Palais  de 
Justice. 

That  night  no  one  in  the  Louvre  closed  his  eyes.  The 
King,  his  mother,  and  his  brothers  kept  vigil,  the  prey  of 
Massacre  of  indescribable  emotion.  In  their  deadly  anxiety 
Saint  they  were  even  on  the  point  at  one  moment  of 

Bartholomew,  giving  up  the  whole  project  and  countermanding 
1572.  their    orders.     But    about    one    o'clock    in    the 

morning  news  was  brought  that  fighting  was  going  on  all  over 
Paris.  Had  the  conspirators  been  warned  ?  They  decided 
to  give  the  signal  earlier,  and  sent  to  have  the  bell  of  Saint- 
Germain-l'Auxerrois  rung.  At  half-past  one  the  fatal  peal 
rang  through  the  silence  of  the  night.  Guise,  who  was  ready, 
sprang  on  his  horse,  accompanied  by  the  Bastard  of  Angouleme, 
and  at  the  head  of  300  soldiers  rode  rapidly  to  the  house  in  the 
Rue  de  Betizy,  which  he  surrounded.  Coligny  was  in  bed, 
watched  by  Ambroise  Pare,  the  Protestant  minister.  Merlin, 
and  his  own  servant,  Nicolas.  The  tramp  of  the  soldiers 
arriving  in  the  street  together  with  the  clang  of  the  tocsin, 
awoke  him.  Violent  knocking  was  heard  below,  and  voices 
ordering  the  inmates  to  open  in  the  name  of  the  King.  The 
gate  was  unbarred.  As  soon  as  Coligny  heard  the  troops  march- 
ing into  the  court,  he  understood.  Rising  from  his  bed,  he 
put  on  his  dressing-gown  and  asked  Merlin  to  read  prayers. 
Cornaton  burst  hiu-riedly  into  the  room  exclaiming,  "  They  are 
breaking  in  the  door  !  We  are  lost !  "  Their  last  hour  had  come. 
Coligny  replied  calmly  :  "I  have  long  been  prepared  for  death  ; 
save  yourselves.  I  commend  my  soul  to  the  mercy  of  God  !  " 
Up  the  stairs  heavy  footsteps  were  hastening.  The  soldiers 
burst  in,  headed  by  one  Besme,  a  German  by  extraction.  "  Are 
Death  of  you  the  Admiral?"  he  demanded  brutally.     "I 

Cohgny.  am  !  "     Besme  then  drove  his  sword  into  Coligny 's 

breast,  drew  it  out,  and  slashed  his  face.  The  Admiral  fell 
232 


BLOODSTAINED    ANARCHY 

to  the  ground,  and  the  soldiers  thrust  at  him  again  and  again. 
A  voice  from  the  com't  below  cried  out,  "Is  it  done  ?  "  It 
was  Guise.  "  Yes,"  one  of  the  soldiers  replied.  "  Well,  throw 
him  out."  The  body  was  pushed  through  the  open  window, 
and  Coligny,  who  was  not  dead,  clung  to  the  ledge.  He  was 
forced  to  let  go,  and  his  body  fell  with  a  thud  on  the  pavement. 
Guise  approached  it,  and  Angouleme,  wiping  away  a  little  of 
the  blood  from  Coligny's  face  with  his  handkerchief,  said, 
"  Yes,  it  is  he  "  ;  then  kicking  him  he  exclaimed,  "  Now  for 
the  others."  Whereupon  they  remounted  their  horses  and 
rode  away  to  finish  their  work. 

A  regular  man-hunt  took  place.  The  Count  of  La  Roche- 
foucauld was  stabbed,  and  died  in  his  bed.  Teligny  ran  over 
the  roofs  of  three  or  four  houses,  and  was  finally  laid  low  by 
a  shot  from  an  arquebuse.  Caumont  la  Force  and  his  son  had 
their  throats  cut.  Resnel  was  killed  by  a  pistol-shot  and 
thrown  into  the  Seine  ;  whilst  Montgommery  had  time  to 
mount  his  horse,  and  clearing  the  city  moat,  made  good  his 
escape. 

But  at  the  news  of  what  was  happening  a  rumour  imme- 
diately ran  through  Paris  that  the  Huguenots  were  being 
massacred,  with  the  result  that  Catholic  nobles,  soldiers  of  the 
guard,  archers,  members  of  the  populace,  and  people  of  every 
rank  rushed  out  armed  into  the  streets  to  take  part  in  the 
execution.  A  general  massacre  began  to  the  sound  of  ferocious 
yells  of  "  The  Huguenots  !  The  Huguenots  !  Death  to  the 
Huguenots  !  "  They  were  slain,  drowned,  and  hanged.  No 
one  who  was  known  to  be  a  heretic  escaped,  and  private  revenge 
completed  what  religious  passion  had  begun.  Terrible  incidents 
occurred  ;  illustrious  victims  fell,  among  them  Ramus  ;  inno- 
cent persons  were  massacred,  and  then,  as  was  inevitable, 
pillage  ensued.  The  envoy  from  Mantua  wrote  :  "I  with  my 
own  eyes  saw  soldiers  of  the  royal  guard  bearing  awaj'^  money 
and  objects  of  value."  "  Paris,"  said  Tavannes,  "  was  like 
a  conquered  city.  As  soon  as  blood  ceased  to  flow,  the  sack 
began."  At  eleven  o'clock  in  the  morning  the  terrified  aldermen 
came  to  inform  the  King  that  "  princes  and  nobles  of  his  Court, 
lords,  archers,  soldiers  of  the  royal  guard,  and  all  sorts  and 
conditions  of  men  mingled  Avith  them,  and  under  their  protection, 

233 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

were  pillaging,  sacking,  and  killing  in  the  streets."  Thus  the 
Government  in  giving  the  signal  had  let  loose  the  beast.  Anarchy 
reigned,  bloodthirsty  and  destructive.  Public  order  was  at 
an  end. 

Horrified  at  their  handiwork,  Charles  IX  and  those  about 
him  endeavoured  to  stem  the  torrent.  Everywhere  proclama- 
tions were  made  to  the  sound  of  the  trumpet,  ordering  the 
crowd  to  go  home.  Patrols  of  mounted  archers,  guards,  and 
city  officials  were  sent  to  scour  the  streets,  and  in  the  afternoon 
the  uproar  seemed  to  be  dying  down.  It  began  again,  however, 
on  the  following  night,  and  was  only  quelled  next  day,  the 
26th.  How  many  victims  had  fallen  ?  It  is  impossible  to 
tell  the  numbers  exactly  ;   de  Thou  says  2000. 

The  Government  immediately  dispatched  letters  to  all  the 
provincial  Governors  informing  them  that  a  terrible  conflict 
Paralysis  ^^^  broken  out  in  Paris  between  the  House  of 

oJ  the  Guise  and  the  House  of  Chatillon,  and  that  the 

Government.  King  had  found  it  impossible  to  hold  it  within 
bounds.  In  the  evening  Charles  IX  wrote  to  the  French 
ambassadors  abroad  to  tell  them  that  "  a  conspiracy  had  just 
been  brought  to  light  which  the  members  of  the  so-called 
reformed  religion  had  formed  against  himself,  his  mother,  and 
his  brother,"  and  that  a  "  commotion  "  had  resulted,  of  which 
nothing  could  be  said  until  the  full  details  were  known.  It 
was  clear  that  the  Government  was  paralysed  and  did  not 
know  what  attitude  to  take.  On  the  25th,  the  day  following 
the  massacre,  as  the  Gxiises  refused  to  accept  responsibility  for 
the  events  that  had  occurred,  the  Government  was  forced  to 
confess,  more  especially  as  the  triumphant  Catholics  were 
acclaiming  the  King  as  the  avenger  of  their  religion.  Charles  IX 
went  to  the  Parliament,  and  at  a  lit  de  justice  *  declared  that 
the  Guises  had  acted  by  his  orders  "  for  the  punishment  of  those 
who  so  frequently  before  and  now  once  again  had  conspired 
against  his  person,  desiring  to  annihilate  religion,  overturn  the 
monarchy,  and  by  means  of  heresy  establish  a  new  form  of 

*  This  ceremony,  which  consisted  in  the  meeting  of  the  King  and  the 
Parliament  with  the  object  either  of  conferring  upon  some  matter  of  law 
or  policy,  or  merely  of  honouring  the  Parliament,  was  one  of  the  most 
solemn  and  important  functions  of  the  monarch.     (Tr.) 
234 


BLOODSTAINED    ANARCHY 

government  in  France."  All  Protestant  services  and  meetings 
were  forbidden  throughout  the  country,  and  further  communica- 
tions were  addressed  to  the  provincial  Governors,  imperatively 
commanding  them  to  maintain  order.  The  Government, 
embarrassed  and  confused,  babbled  contradictions  and  in- 
coherencies. 

The  effect  of  the  events  that  had  taken  place  in  Paris 
made  itself  felt  in  the  provinces,  and  massacres  took  place 
in  many  of  the  towns — Orleans,  Troyes,  Meaux,  Bourges, 
La  Charit6,  Rouen,  Lyons,  and  Toulouse.  The  strife  was 
fiercest  at  Lyons  and  Orleans,  where  the  inmates  of  the  prisons 
were  put  to  death.  According  to  de  Thou  800  victims  fell 
at  Lyons  and  1000  at  Orleans.  The  Governors  set  to  work 
energetically  to  hold  the  populace  in  hand,  and  there  were  no 
outbreaks  in  Burgundy,  Provence,  and  Dauphiny.  The  Massacre 
of  Saint  Bartholomew  stirred  the  provinces  less  than  Paris. 

But,  as  Tavannes  \vrote :  "When  once  the  blow  had  fallen 
and  the  danger  was  past,  the  bloodshed  weighed  heavily  on 
men's  consciences  !  "  And,  indeed,  the  Massacre  of  Saint 
Bartholomew  had  been  a  terrible  surprise.  "  The  suddenness 
of  the  danger,"  de  la  Mothe  Fenelon,  the  French  Ambassador 
to  England,  informed  Queen  Elizabeth  on  behalf  of  his  Govern- 
ment, "  had  not  even  left  the  King  time  for  reflection,  and  he 
had  been  constrained  to  allow  that  to  be  done  to  the  Admiral 
and  his  followers  which  they  had  planned  against  his  own 
person."  "As  the  conspiracy  was  on  the  eve  of  realization," 
the  first  President  of  Bordeaux  informed  his  Parliament, 
"  matters  were  so  pressing  that  it  had  been  impossible  to  wait 
for  justice  to  take  its  ordinary  course :  it  had  been  thought 
better  to  surprise  the  conspirators  than  to  be  surprised  by  them, 
and  this  the  King  had  declared  in  his  court  of  Parliament  to 
have  been  his  sole  reason  for  taldng  action."  "  The  event," 
said  Tavannes,  "  had  been  the  result  of  necessity  and  wise 
counsel,  owing  to  the  errors  and  recklessness  of  the  Huguenots." 
Catherine  de'  Medici,  whom  the  envoy  of  the  Duke  of  Savoy 
described  as  looking  "  like  a  person  who  had  just  escaped  from 
Catholic  ^  great  peril,"  kept  repeating  to  every  one  "  that 

exultation.  it  was  better  for  the  blow  to  have  fallen  on  them 
than  on  us  !  "   The  Catholics  certainly  approved  the  course  the 

235 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

Government  had  taken,  maintaining  that  they  had  escaped 
from  an  intolerable  situation  by  a  measure  of  public  safety, 
and  that  the  revolutionary  schemes  directed  against  the  royal 
family  necessitated  the  employment  of  exceptional,  though 
legitimate  measures.  Philip  II  in  a  transport  of  joy  had  a 
Te  Deum  sung,  and  wrote  to  his  ambassador  in  France  :  "  This 
has  given  me  one  of  the  greatest  joys  of  my  life,  and  will  be 
the  greatest  title  to  glory  of  the  King,  my  brother,  with  pos- 
terity." In  Rome  Pope  Gregory  XIII,  radiant  with  triumph, 
attended  a  thanksgiving  celebration  of  the  Mass  in  the 
Chapel  of  Saint  Louis.  He  also  had  a  medal  struck  repre- 
senting an  avenging  angel,  with  the  inscription  Ugonotorum 
strages,  and  prescribed  an  annual  Te  Deum,  which  was  destined 
to  be  celebrated  longer  than  is  generally  known.  But  the  full 
consequences  of  the  act  had  also  to  be  faced. 

In  Vienna  the  impression  produced  was  lamentable,  and 
the  Emperor  Maximilian  did  not  hesitate  to  make  this  felt. 
Horror  of  Iii  England  Elizabeth  received  the  French  Ambas- 

Europe.  sador  arrayed  in  deep  mourning  and  addressed 

him  with  grave  melancholy,  whilst  her  minister,  standing  by 
her  side,  openly  told  the  envoy  in  severe  accents  that  the  deed 
had  been  too  bloody.  In  Switzerland,  the  Netherlands,  and 
Germany,  the  effect  was  deplorable.  The  event  was  described 
and  exaggerated,  and  it  was  even  said  that  the  marriage  of 
Henry  of  Beam  and  Margaret  of  Valois  had  been  nothing  but 
a  monstrous  snare.  Schomberg,  the  French  Ambassador,  wrote 
in  despair :  "  These  calumnies  turn  everything  upside  down. 
I  shall  die  of  vexation."  At  Geneva  pamphlets  were  printed 
stigmatizing  the  monarch  who  murdered  his  subjects,  and 
Francois  Hotman,  in  his  De  Furoribus  Gallicis,  attacked  the 
very  principle  of  royalty.  The  Reveille-Matin  des  Frangois 
took  a  delight  in  publishing  gruesome  details,  and  a  legend 
was  current  that  Charles  IX  had  shot  at  the  Huguenots  with 
an  arquebuse  from  his  window  in  the  Louvre.  This  rumour, 
indeed,  was  persistent — but,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  there  was  not 
a  single  witness  of  the  act,  which  was  highly  improbable,  if 
only  for  material  reasons.  In  Italy,  under  the  pretext  of  exalting 
the  deed,  the  massacre  was  compared  to  the  action  of  a  Caesar 
Borgia  or  a  Catherine  Sforza,  and  was  represented  as  having 
236 


BLOODSTAINED    ANARCHY 

been  consciously  prepared  with  Machiavellian  craft  for  many 
years,  led  up  to  with  incredible  coolness  and  audacity,  and 
executed  with  incomparable  skill  at  a  marvellously  opportune 
moment.  The  Cardinal  of  Lorraine,  who  was  at  Rome  at  the 
time,  and  was  flattered  by  these  insinuations,  allowed  people 
to  believe  in  their  truth.  But  this  only  increased  the  horror 
felt  by  the  rest  of  Europe.  "  King  Charles  IX,"  William  of 
Orange  wrote  to  his  brother  Ludovic  of  Nassau,  "  is  condemned 
not  only  here  but  throughout  the  world  "  ;  and  he  even  went 
so  far  as  to  tell  Mondoucet,  the  French  envoy,  that  his  master 
would  never  be  able  to  wash  the  blood  of  the  massacre  of  Saint 
Bartholomew  ofl;  his  hands. 

The  French  Government,  through  the  medium  of  its  ambas- 
sadors all  over  Europe,  thus  learnt  the  truth  as  to  the  impression 
that  had  been  made.  Catherine  de'  Medici  held  her  ground, 
at  all  events  in  public,  and  put  a  bold  face  on  the  matter, 
declaring  that  they  had  only  intended  to  execute  five  or  six 
men,  and  that  all  the  rest  was  due  "  to  the  excesses  of  the 
populace,  which  she  deeply  deplored."  But  Charles  IX, 
Remorse  of  utterly  prostrated,  was  stricken  to  death.  In 
Charles  IX.  the  eyes  of  the  world,  he  told  himself,  he  was 
merely  a  criminal,  a  dastardly  assassin,  a  miserable  wretch, 
covered  with  the  blood  of  his  own  people.  Under  the  weight 
of  grief  and  remorse  he  changed  visibly.  He  did  not  long 
survive  the  Massacre  of  Saint  Bartholomew,  for  tuberculosis, 
to  which  he  had  always  had  a  tendency,  began  to  make  swift 
ravages  in  a  body  rendered  anaemic  by  sorrow. 

The  French  Protestants,  utterly  cast  down  and  disconcerted, 
were  for  the  moment  terror-stricken,  and  many  of  them 
abjured  their  faith.  Henry  of  Beam  and  the  Prince  of  Conde, 
who  as  a  precautionary  measure  had  been  kept  in  the  Louvre, 
upon  being  invited  to  change  their  religion,  consented  to  do 
so.  In  order  to  impress  upon  men's  minds  that  a  conspiracy 
had  really  existed  and  was  the  true  cause  of  the  event,  though 
the  public  had  lost  sight  of  it  in  their  horror  of  the  consequences, 
the  Government  made  the  Parliament  pass  a  resolution  confirm- 
ing their  action,  so  to  speak,  in  which  Coligny  was  declared 
guilty  of  conspiracy  and  rebellion,  and  condemned  to  be  hanged 
in  effigy  at  Montfaucon,  to  have  his  goods  confiscated  and  his 

237 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

children  degraded  from  their  rank.  Two  "  accomplices  "  were 
unearthed  who  had  escaped  the  assassins — Briquemaut  and 
Cavagnes — and  they  were  publicly  tried  and  solemnly  executed. 
But  all  these  measures  served  no  purpose.  Both  contemporaries 
and  posterity  quickly  forgot  the  circumstance  which  had  caused 
a  panic  in  the  government  of  Charles  IX  and  remembered  only 
the  atrocity  of  the  deed. 

Beneath  the  lowering  clouds  created  by  August  24  and  in 
the  humiliating  isolation  into  which  the  Massacre  of  Saint 
Anjou  elected  Bartholomew  had  plunged  the  French  Govern- 
King  o£  ment,   one    single    gleam  of    light    appeared — a 

Poland.  semi-successful  stroke  of  diplomacy.     Catherine 

de'  Medici  succeeded  in  placing  her  favourite  son,  the 
Duke  of  Anjou,  upon  the  vacant  throne  of  Poland.  He  left 
France,  to  the  great  joy  of  Charles  IX,  who  was  jealous  of  him 
and  had  scenes  with  him  which  caused  their  mother  many 
bitter  tears.  On  behalf  of  her  youngest  son,  the  Duke  of 
Alengon,  Catherine  revived  the  negotiations  for  a  marriage 
with  Elizabeth  of  England.  D'Alen§on,  who  was  a  young  man 
of  a  frivolous  and  discontented  disposition,  and  held  in  very 
slight  esteem,  was  flattered  by  this  prospect,  and  had  the  Queen 
of  England  informed  that  he  would  not  be  so  irreconcilable  on 
the  score  of  religion  as  his  brother  had  been.  He  showed  signs 
of  sympathy  for  Calvinism,  and  gained  the  reputation  of  being 
favourably  disposed  towards  heresy.  But  Elizabeth  eluded 
him.  Finally,  he  decided  to  fiee  from  Court  in  the  company 
of  Henry  of  Beam,  a  species  of  conspiracy  which  once  more 
filled  the  royal  family  with  alarm,  and  resulted  in  the  arrest, 
trial,  and  execution  of  two  nobles.  La  Mole  and  Coconas,  who 
were  regarded  as  the  instigators  of  the  escapade. 

Meanwhile,  however,  Charles  IX  gradually  sank  into  a 
decline.  Since  the  terrible  catastrophe  he  had  never  been 
Death  of  himself.     Bowed    down    with    melancholy    that 

Charles  IX,  nothing  could  alleviate,  he  looked  like  a  momriing, 
1574.  terror-stricken  shade.     The  foreign  ambassadors, 

and  among  them  Giovanni  Michiel,  noticed  that  he  always  held 
his  head  down,  that  he  no  longer  dared  to  look  men  in  the  face, 
but  kept  his  eyes  closed.  Occasionally  when  he  was  addressed 
he  made  an  effort  and  raised  his  eyelids,  but  after  a  swift  glance 
238 


BLOODSTAINED    ANARCHY 

he  dropped  them  again.  A  contemporary  portrait,  of  the 
school  of  Clouet,  which  was  till  recently  in  the  Chateau  d'Azay 
le-Rideau,  depicts  him  with  pale  tired  features,  haggard  eyes, 
and  transparent  tremulous  hands — an  arresting  image  of  a  man 
racked  by  remorse  and  the  haunting  obsession  of  a  fixed  idea. 
He  spat  blood,  and  the  doctors  declared  that  he  was  "  consump- 
tive." Day  by  day,  consumed  by  fever,  he  grew  gradually 
feebler  and  thinner.  In  the  spring  of  1574  he  was  nothing  but 
a  skeleton  dragging  himself  painfully  along.  In  May,  reduced 
to  a  state  of  extreme  weakness,  he  took  to  his  bed  which  he 
never  left  again.  During  the  night  of  the  29th-30th  he  had 
an  attack,  when  he  was  thought  to  be  in  extremis,  and  exclaimed 
in  agonized  tones  :  "  Oh,  what  streams  of  blood  !  .  .  .  God 
forgive  me  !  .  .  .  I  don't  know  where  I  am  !  .  .  .  I  am 
lost !  "  He  was  in  a  bath  of  perspiration  and  wept  bitterly. 
The  nurse  who  was  watching  him  wiped  his  face  with  a  hand- 
kerchief. On  the  morning  of  the  30th  he  sent  for  the  Duke  of 
Alen§on  and  the  King  of  Navarre,  and  told  them  that  after 
his  death  his  mother  would  be  Regent,  and  that  they  must 
obey  her.  He  confided  a  little  child  he  had  to  the  care  of  Henry 
of  Beam.  He  then  received  the  Sacrament  and  was  given 
Extreme  Unction.  On  the  31st,  Catherine  de'  Medici,  who 
never  left  him,  tried  to  say  a  few  words  to  him  on  affairs  of 
State,  but  he  gave  her  to  understand  that  "  earthly  things 
were  no  longer  of  any  account  to  him."  The  end  was  at  hand, 
and  at  four  o'clock  in  the  evening  he  died.  The  last  word  that 
passed  his  lips  was  "  Mother  !  "  .  .  . 

Sources.  Same  as  for  preceding  chapter,  and  :  Monluc,  Commen- 
taires  et  Lettres,  ed.  de  Ruble,  1864  (on  the  subject  of  this  author  see  P. 
Courteault,  Blaise  de  Monluc  historien,  1908) ;  Michel  de  Castelnau, 
Memoires,  ed.  Le  Laboureur,  1731  ;  Claude  Haton,  Mdmoires,  ed.  Bour- 
quelot,  1857  ;  La  Noue,  Discours  politiques  et  militaires,  1587  ;  Jean 
Faurin,  Journal,  ed.  Pradel,  1878  ;  Claude  de  Sainctes,  Discours  sur  le 
saccagement  des  iglises  en  1562  in  Cimber  and  Danjou,  Archives  curieuses, 
vol.  iv  ;  Mimoires-Journaux  of  the  Due  de  Guise,  ed.  Michaud  and  Poujou- 
lat ;  Marguerite  de  Valois,  Mdmoires,  ed.  Guessard,  1842  ;  J.  Blanchet 
Recueil  de  lettres  missives  adressdes  a  Antoine  de  Bourbon  (1553-1562), 1905  ; 
Saulx-Tavannes,  Mdmoires,  ed.  Michaud  and  Poujoulat  ;  Vicomte  de 
Turenne,  Mdmoires,  ed.  Baguenault  de  Puchesse,  1901  ;  Michel  de  la 
Huguerye,  Mdmoires,  ed.  De  Ruble,  1877  ;  Bertrand  de  Salignac-Fenelon, 
Correspondence,  ed.  Teulet,  1840  ;   Cardinal  de  Granvelle,  Papiers  d'Etat, 

239 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

ed.  C.  Weiss,  1841  ;  Correspondence  de  Philippe  II  stir  les  affaires  des 
Pays-Bas,  1851 ;  Correspondence  inedite  de  la  maison  d' Orange-Nassau, 
ed.  Groen  van  Prinsterer,  1836  ;  Jeanne  d'Albret,  Memoires  et  podsies, 
ed.  de  Ruble,  1883  ;  Et.  Pasquier,  CEuvres,  1723 ;  de  Thou,  Histoire 
universelle,  1734,  vol.  iv. 

Works.  H.  de  la  Ferriere,  Le  XV P  siecle  et  les  Valois,  1879  ;  Soldan, 
Geschichte  des  Protestantismus  in  Frankreich  bis  zum  Tode  KarVs  IX,  1855  ; 
Kervyn  de  Lettenhove,  Les  Huguenots  et  les  Gueux,  1883  ;  Amphoux, 
Michel  de  VHopital  et  la  liberie  de  conscience  au  XVP  siecle,  1900  ;  H. 
Klipffel,  Le  collogue  de  Poissy,  1867  ;  A.  de  Ruble,  Le  collogue  de  Poissy, 
1889  ;  J.  Galas,  Le  massacre  de  Vassy,  1887 ;  Coynart,  Uannee  1562 
et  la  bataille  de  Dreux,  1894  ;  H.  Hauser,  Frangois  de  la  None,  1892  ;  de 
Ruble,  V assassinat  de  Frangois  de  Lorraine,  due  de  Guise,  1897  ;  F.  Combes, 
Ventrevue  de  Bayonne,  1882  ;  Kervyn  de  Lettenhove,  La  conference  de 
Bayonne,  1883  ;  H.  de  la  Ferriere,  VEntrevue  de  Bayonne  de  1565,  1883  ; 
G.  G.  Soldan,  La  France  et  la  Saint-BartMlemy,  1855 ;  H.  Bordier,  La 
Saint-Barthelemy  et  la  critique  moderne,  1879  ;  J.  Loiseleur,  Les  nouvelles 
controverses  sur  la  Saint-BartMlemy,  1881  ;  and,  Trois  enigmes  hislorigues, 
la  Saint-Barthelemy,  1883  ;  H.  de  la  Ferriere,  La  Saint-Barthelemy,  1892  ; 
H.  Monod,  Un  document  sur  la  Saint-BarlMlemy  (Revue  de  Paris,  August 
1908) ;  S.  C.  Gigon,  La  troisieme  guerre  de  religion,  Jarnac  et  Montcontour, 
1911  ;  P.  de  Vaissiere,  De  guelgues  assassins,  1912. 


240 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE  CATHOLIC  REACTION.     HENRY  III 

Causes  of  the  Catholic  reaction  against  Protestantism.  The  cha- 
racter of  Henry  III,  1574-1589  ;  his  difficulties  with  his  brother 
the  Duke  of  Anjou  and  Henry  of  Beam  ;  the  Peace  of  Monsieur  and 
the  Edict  of  Beaulieu,  1576.  The  League,  1576.  The  States-General 
of  Blois,  1576.  The  Peace  of  Bergerac  with  the  Protestants,  1577. 
The  Duke  of  Anjou  in  the  Netherlands.  The  Lover's  War  and  the 
Peace  of  Fleix,  1580.  Fresh  expedition  of  the  Duke  of  Anjou  to 
the  Netherlands,  1581  ;  his  defeat ;  his  death,  1584.  The  Protestant 
Henry  of  Beam  heir  to  the  throne  of  France ;  violent  protesta- 
tions ;  the  Committee  of  the  Sixteen  in  Paris.  The  unpopularity  of 
Henry  III ;  his  minions ;  Henry  III  obliged  to  give  way  to  the 
League,  Treaty  of  Nemours,  1585.  War  against  the  Protestants  : 
defeat  of  Joyeuse  at  Coutras  by  the  King  of  Navarre,  1587  ;  Guise's 
victory  at  Vimory  and  Auneau,  1587.  Growing  hostility  of  the 
mob  towards  Henry  III  :  the  day  of  the  barricades,  1588.  Defeat 
of  Henry  III.  The  States-General  of  Blois  and  the  assassination 
of  the  Duke  of  Guise,  1588.  Upheaval  of  France.  Henry  III 
reduced  to  a  combination  with  Henry  of  Beam  :  march  on  Paris  ; 
assassination  of  Henry  III,  1589. 

A  T  the  conference  of  Saint-Bris  held  in  1586,  Catherine 
/\  de'  Medici,  discussing  matters  with  the  Vicomte  de 
■^  -^  Turenne,  Henry  of  Beam's  envoy,  said :  "  The  King 
will  have  but  one  religion  in  France."  The  Protestant 
replied,  "  We  are  of  the  same  mind,  madam,  but  it  must  be 
Causes  of  ^^^  religion."     This  had  long  been  the  case  in 

Catholic  Beam,  where  Jeanne  d'Albret  had  succeeded  in 

reaction.  abolishing  Catholicism.      The   Huguenots   would 

fain  have  ended  by  maldng  France  a  Protestant  country 
against  her  will.  But  France  was  recalcitrant.  The  reign  of 
Henry  III  is  the  history  of  the  definitive  Catholic  reaction 
against  the  exclusive  designs  or  aspirations  of  the  Protestants. 
Until  about  1564  Protestantism  had  steadily  increased  and 
developed.     From  that  time  forth  it   ceased  to  grow.     The 

Q  241 


CENTURY    OF   THE    RENAISSANCE 

causes  of  this  arrest  are  numerous,  but  amongst  the  reasons 
which  led  to  the  revival  of  Catholicism,  the  sight  of  the  de- 
struction for  which  the  Huguenots  were  responsible  was  certainly- 
one  of  the  most  potent.  Lippomano  on  his  journey  across 
France  in  1577  noted  with  horror  all  the  unrepaired  ravages 
with  which  he  met — devastated  towns,  plundered  monasteries, 
cathedrals  in  ruins,  crumbhng  churches,  violated  tombs  and 
disinterred  bones.  Orleans,  Blois,  Tours  and  Poitiers  were  in 
a  deplorable  condition.  "  The  sight  of  these  things  is  truly 
lamentable,"  he  said,  "and  it  is  difficult  to  understand  how 
men  can  let  themselves  go  to  such  a  pitch  of  ferocity  and  bar- 
barity as  to  rage  against  mere  stones."  The  public  conscience 
awoke  in  revolt.  But  the  work  of  destruction  did  not  cease. 
In  spite  of  the  peace  that  had  been  proclaimed,  Jean  Faiu"in 
remarks,  acts  of  hostility  were  continually  perpetrated.  During 
the  course  of  twenty-seven  years  this  same  Faurin  had  witnessed 
459  sieges,  captures  of  castles,  and  surprise  attacks  in  the 
region  round  Castres.  The  people  were  exasperated  beyond 
endurance.  The  conclusion  of  the  Council  of  Trent  made  a 
favourable  impression  upon  public  opinion,  for  the  Catholic 
Chm-ch  in  the  face  of  hostile  criticism,  had  revised  and  defined 
her  doctrines,  formulated  her  teaching,  and  reformed  her 
discipline.  The  Council  had  lasted  a  long  while,  in  the  midst 
of  various  vicissitudes  ;  but  it  had  accomplished  its  task,  and 
had  formulated  decrees  the  terms  of  which  seemed  to  give 
satisfaction  to  the  troubled  minds  of  the  Catholics,  and  to 
strengthen  their  faith.  Finally,  a  new  army  adapted  to 
the  fresh  needs  of  the  time  was  fighting  against  the  Reformation. 
This  was  the  Jesuit  militia,  founded  by  Saint  Ignatius  Loyola 
in  1540,  with  the  object  of  opposing  the  Protestant  principle 
of  free  inquiry  by  the  contrary  doctrine  of  passive  obedience. 
This  order  abjured  all  ecclesiastical  dignities,  while  adapting 
itself  to  every  form  of  priestly  function — oratory,  teaching, 
hearing  confessions,  and  the  study  of  theology  ;  its  members 
preached  and  founded  colleges  everywhere.  The  Jesuits  spread 
with  such  rapidity  and  became  so  powerful  that  by  the  end  of 
the  century  they  inspired  universal  fear  and  were  driven  out 
everywhere.  They  contributed,  however,  to  the  accentuation  of 
the  Catholic  reaction,  which  took  place  under  the  reign  of  one 
242 


THE    CATHOLIC    REACTION 

of  the  most  extraordinary  and  complex  characters  among  the 
Kings  of  France. 

A  man  above  the  average  height,  extremely  thin,  with  a 
very  long  face,  the  half-veiled  glance  of  his  father  Henry  11, 
Character  of  ^  broad  forehead  and  mocking  mouth,  Henry  III 
Henry  III,  was  far  from  being  a  fool.  He  was  a  prince 
1574-1589.  endowed  with  a  hvely  intelligence  and  much 
perception  ;  but  he  was  a  sceptic,  and  a  scoifer  with  a  touch 
of  the  dilettante,  amused  by  life  and  at  times  himself  amusing. 
He  once  wrote  to  Villeroy  "  There  was  a  certain  King  of  Judah 
who  owing  to  bad  counsels  was  lost.  May  God  preserve  the 
King  of  France  from  such  a  fate  !  I  know  very  well,  it  seems 
to  me,  what  I  ought  to  do,  but  I  am  like  a  man  who  feels  he 
is  drowning,  and  from  an  instinct  of  obedience  is  content  to 
do  so  rather  than  save  himself.  And  then,  nobody  else  would 
agree  with  me  and  I  may  possibly  be  wrong  !  "  For  a  King  of 
France  who  came  to  the  throne  when  his  country  was  passing 
through  a  most  critical  phase  in  her  internal  history,  this  state 
of  mind  was  by  no  means  desirable.  In  other  respects  Henry 
III  was  an  amiable  man  with  a  gentle,  affable  disposition.  He 
had  eyes  that  were  charming  when  they  looked  at  his  inter- 
locutors, and,  when  he  spoke,  the  corners  of  his  mouth  had  an 
attractive  curve.  He  held  himself  extremely  well  and  had  a 
noble  and  graceful  bearing.  In  short  he  was  every  inch  a 
King,  and  very  conscious  of  his  own  dignity.  It  was  he  who 
laid  down  the  rules  for  an  augmented  ceremonial  about  his 
person — a  Court  etiquette  which  was  destined  to  be  applied 
more  particularly  under  Louis  XIV  and  resulted  in  keeping 
people  at  a  distance  from  the  King,  and  in  multiplying  the 
"  idolatrous  "  obeisances  performed,  not  only  in  his  presence, 
but  even  before  the  common  objects  he  used  ;  "  apish  tricks," 
wrote  Claude  Dupuy,  "  imported  ab  ultimis  Sarmatis  to  our 
country  of  France  :   barbari  moris  sunt  !  " 

But  if  Henry  III  had  the  intelligence  and  ^vit  to  understand 
the  course  of  events  without  having  the  energy  to  direct  them  ; 
Henry  Hi's  ^^^  i^'  conscious  of  his  rank,  he  aimed  at  inspiring 
tastes.  respect  by  means  of  external  signs  of  deference, 

many  other  elements  contributed  to  contradict  these  qualities. 
"  Everything    about    him    is    contradictory "    said    Morosini. 

243 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

Extremely  delicate  in  health,  with  a  sickly  constitution,  subject 
to  violent  headaches,  abscesses  in  his  ear,  and  a  skin  disease — 
which  the  doctors  called  a  sort  of  "  itch  "  and  for  which  they 
ordered  him  sea  baths — and  suffering  from  constant  attacks 
of  indigestion,  he  had  the  characteristic  tastes  and  habits 
of  a  degenerate.  All  who  came  into  contact  with  him  regarded 
him  as  "  effeminate."  Contrary  to  the  traditions  of  his  family, 
he  hated  physical  exercise,  regarded  riding  and  hunting  with 
horror,  and  lay  late  in  bed.  On  the  other  hand,  his  attention 
to  his  toilet  was  carried  to  the  point  of  ridiculous  excess.  He 
invented  fashions  each  more  extravagant  than  the  last,  covering 
himself  with  precious  stones,  wearing  ear-rings,  bracelets,  and 
numberless  rings,  and  curling  his  hair.  But  above  all  he 
delighted  in  perfumes,  scattering  musk  violet  powder  and  bags 
of  rose-leaves  everywhere,  even  in  his  bed.  He  also  loved 
amusement.  Utterly  indifferent  to  affairs  of  state — especially 
at  the  beginning  of  his  reign,  though  later  on  he  was  obliged 
to  take  part  in  them — and  detesting  work,  he  threw  himself 
into  a  life  of  gaiety.  He  was  essentially  a  man  of  pleasure,  and 
Germain  Pilon's  medal  of  him  certainly  gives  this  impression. 
In  the  company  of  comrades  and  friends  of  his  own  age  who 
never  left  his  side,  he  gave  himself  up  to  all  the  follies  in  which 
rich  and  overbearing  young  men,  in  a  position  to  venture  upon 
anything,  can  afford  to  indulge.  He  once  arranged  a  dinner- 
party where  the  task  of  waiting  upon  the  guests  was  performed 
by  ladies  of  the  Court  dressed  as  men,  and  every  one  was  clad 
in  green  silk.  And  on  another  occasion,  at  Chenonceaux,  a 
dinner  was  given  on  the  terrace  at  which  young  ladies  of  the 
Court  played  a  similar  part,  with  their  hair  hanging  loose  about 
their  shoulders  and  their  dresses  cut  excessively  low.  But  his 
most  successful  entertainments  were  masquerades.  On  Shrove 
Tuesday  he  would  dress  himself  up  as  a  woman,  in  a  "  fish- 
wife's skirt "  of  red,  black,  white,  and  orange,  and  wearing  a 
mask  over  his  face,  would  scour  the  streets  with  ten  young  boon 
companions,  jostling  people,  entering  houses  and  playing  a 
thousand  impudent  pranks  all  through  the  night  until  six 
o'clock  in  the  morning.  For  balls  he  disguised  himself  in  a 
lady's  gown  "  opening  his  doublet  and  uncovering  his  neck, 
round  which  he  wore  a  pearl  necklace  and  three  linen  collars." 
244 


THE    CATHOLIC    REACTION 

His  weakness  for  his  friends  and  companions,  which  amounted 
to  infatuation,  and  his  relative  indifference  to  women  have  laid 
him  open  to  certain  imputations.  But  there  is  not  the  slightest 
evidence  of  a  taste  which  would  brand  him  as  a  man  of  perverted 
instincts.  The  abnormality  of  his  character,  however,  was 
displayed  in  other  strange  caprices.  He  affected  an  attitude 
of  excessive  piety  which,  in  a  man  of  pleasure,  presented  a 
somewhat  surprising  contrast.  He  went  on  pilgrimages  to 
Chartres  and  Clery  from  Paris  on  foot.  He  used  to  wander 
from  one  church  to  another  with  two  or  three  companions 
"  holding  large  Paternosters  in  his  hand,  which  he  kept  muttering 
and  repeating  through  the  streets."  He  marched  at  night  by 
torchlight  in  the  processions  of  the  Blue  Penitents,  with  his  body 
tied  up  in  a  sack  which  had  two  holes  for  the  eyes.  He  founded 
the  Brotherhood  of  the  Penitents  of  Our  Lady,  and  took  part 
in  their  processions  with  a  monk's  cowl  on  his  head,  carrying 
a  candle  in  his  hand.  The  people  i  derided  him,  calling  him 
"  the  churchwarden  of  Saint  Germain-l'Auxerrois,  the  son- 
in-law  of  Colas."  *  He  had  a  chaplet  made  for  himself  the 
beads  of  which  represented  death's  heads — the  death's  head 
was  his  chosen  emblem,  and  is  seen  on  the  bindings  of  his  books 
— and  he* danced  at  balls , wearing' this  chaplet  suspended  from 
his  waist.  He  had  no  children.  This  distinguished,  witty, 
effeminate  and  fantastic  prince  represents  the  degenerate  end 
of  a  royal  race. 

Henry  III  was  at  Cracow,  in  Poland,  when  he  heard  of  the 
death  of  his  brother,  Charles  IX,  whose  heir  he  was.  As  he 
detested  life  in  that  remote  country,  he  took  flight  by  night, 
galloping  away  on  a  mare,  which  he  killed  by  riding  her  hard 
for  seventy-two  hours,  and  leaving  his  followers  to  manage  as 
best  they  could  without  him.  He  passed  by  Venice  where 
he  was  given  a  very  friendly  reception.  Catherine  de'  Medici 
awaited   his  arrival  in  France,   carrying  on  the   government 

*  A  reference  to  an  old  sixteenth-century  term  of  abuse  applied  to 
Huguenots,  and  in  its  original  form  "  the  cow  of  Colas  "  {la  vache  a  Colas). 
It  arose  out  of  an  incident  at  Bionne,  where  a  stray  cow  belonging  to  one 
Colas  Pannier  entered  a  Protestant  place  of  worship.  The  Huguenots, 
thinking  the  cow  was  driven  in  among  them  on  purpose,  seized  and  killed 
it.  The  Sheriff,  however,  made  them  indemnify  its  owner.  Songs  were 
soon  written  and  sung  by  the  Catholics  in  memory  of  the  incident.    (Tr.) 

245 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

meanwhile.  Henry  III,  overjoyed  at  his  accession  to  the  throne, 
was  extremely  amiable  to  everybody.  He  set  free  his  brother, 
the  Duke  of  Alen9on,  and  the  King  of  Navarre,  who  had  been 
kept  in  a  state  of  semi-confinement  ever  since  their  last  es- 
capade ;  he  was  attentive  to  the  Guises,  assured  the  Huguenots 
that  he  was  ready  to  grant  them  an  amnesty  for  the  past,  and 
won  the  hearts  of  the  Catholics  by  his  reverent  piety.  In 
February,  1575,  he  married,  taking  to  wife  a  charming  young 
Henry  Ill's  girl  of  twenty,  liOuise  de  Vaudemont,  a  niece  of 
marriage,  1575.  the  Duke  of  Lorraine.  It  was  not  a  brilliant 
match,  but  in  spite  of  Catherine  de'  Medici's  opposition,  he 
insisted  upon  it,  having  fallen  in  love  with  the  girl,  whom  he  had 
met  at  the  time  of  his  departure  for  Poland.  Queen  Louise, 
with  her  pale  face  and  pretty,  delicate  features,  her  graceful 
carriage  and  elegant  slender  figure,  her  laughing  eyes  and  ex- 
tremely sweet,  simple,  and  modest  nature,  was  destined  to 
retire  somewhat  into  the  background.  She  adored  her  husband 
and  never  took  her  eyes  off  him,  but  later  on  she  was  rather 
neglected  by  him.  Henry  III  bought  her  an  estate  at  Ollain- 
ville,  near  Paris,  where  she  used  to  spend  the  long  summer 
months. 

Though  the  Queen  took  no  part  in  public  affairs,  the  Duke 
of  Alen9on,  the  King's  younger  brother,  caused  him  much 
anxiety.  This  youth,  who  was  two  years  younger  than  Henry 
III,  and  consequently  twenty-two  at  the  time  of  his  accession, 
was  small,  squarely  built  and  fat,  extremely  dark  in  complexion, 
with  curly  black  hair.  He  was  amiable  and  jovial,  however, 
although  wild,  tm'bulent,  and  unruly;  he  was  jealous  of  his 
brother,  whom  he  accused  of  being  their  mother's  favourite, 
and  had  no  affection  for  him.  On  the  pretext  that  he  was  being 
spied  upon,  he  fled  from  Paris  on  September  15,  1575,  hidden 
in  a  carriage,  and  reached  Dreux,  where  he  published  a  manifesto 
declaring  that  the  King  wished  to  cast  him  into  prison.  The 
situation  became  somewhat  serious,  as  he  opened  negotiations 
with  Conde  and  made  overtures  to  the  Huguenots.  Grave 
complications  were  feared  if  the  party  should  adopt  him  as 
its  leader.  Catherine  de'  Medici  set  out  in  pursuit  of  him 
with  the  object  of  inducing  him  to  come  back,  and  followed 
him  to  Chambord.  At  that  moment  a  body  of  2000  Beiters 
246 


THE    CATHOLIC    REACTION 

was  actually  crossing  the  frontier  on  their  way  to  join  Conde. 
Fortunately,  however,  the  Duke  of  Guise,  who  was  Governor 
of  Champagne,  attacked  and  dispersed  them  at  Dormans,  when 
he  received  a  volley  in  his  face  which  left  a  deep  scar.  From 
that  day  forth  he  went  by  the  nickname  of  Le  Balafre  (the 
scarred  man).  Catherine  succeeded  in  allaying  the  storm  by 
paying  Conde  160,000  crowns,  and  giving  the  Duke  of  Alengon 
a  bodyguard  to  make  him  feel  safe. 

But  at  a  Com't  under  a  King  of  four-and-twenty  who  passed 
his  days  in  revelry  surrounded  by  excitable  young  men,  it  was 
Difllculties  inevitable  that  the  passions  that  were  surging  in  the 
with  Henry  of  provinces  should  have  free  play ;  and  Protestants 
Beam.  and  Catholics  alike  committed  acts  of  provocation. 

"  We  are  nearly  always  ready  to  cut  each  other's  throats," 
Henry  of  Navarre  wrote  to  Monsieur  de  Miossens.  "  We  carry 
daggers  and  wear  coats  of  mail  and  very  often  breastplates 
under  our  cloaks.  I  am  only  waiting  for  the  opportunity  to 
have  a  little  fighting,  for  I  am  told  that  they  are  plotting  to 
kill  me  and  I  want  to  steal  a  march  on  them."  The  threats 
against  him  became  so  alarming  that  he  in  his  turn  fled  from 
Court  on  February  3,  1576,  during  a  hunting-party,  and  hastened 
to  join  Alen^on,  publicly  declaring  that  he  was  a  Calvinist,  and 
announcing  that  his  recantation  after  the  Massacre  of  Saint 
Bartholomew  was  of  no  account.  He  then  made  for  Beam, 
where  he  summoned  all  his  gentlemen  to  him.  The  Duke  of 
Alengon  and  Conde  showed  an  inclination  to  support  him,  and 
the  position  of  the  Government  was  embarrassing  in  the  ex- 
treme. The  King  did  nothing  but  amuse  himself,  and  the 
Exchequer  was  empty.  "  The  only  topic  at  Court  at  the 
moment  was  that  there  was  nothing  for  the  King's  dinner." 
The  Court  was  living  upon  loans — and  miserable  loans — of 
500  or  600  pounds,  borrowed  from  parliamentary  counsellors, 
lawyers  and  procurators.  How  could  they  raise  the  funds  to 
pay  an  army  ?  Catherine  de'  Medici,  who  continued  to  be  the 
guiding  spirit  of  the  Government,  was  of  opinion  that  every 
sacrifice  should  be  made  to  avoid  war.  Her  fears  were  ex- 
aggerated ;  she  was  growing  old.  The  result  of  her  negotiations 
was  that  the  Duke  of  Alen^on  was  allowed  to  add  the  title  of 
Anjou  to  his  honours  and  to  become  Duke  of  Anjou  ;    whilst 

247 


CENTURY    OF    THE     RENAISSANCE 

Conde  was  made  Governor  of  Languedoc.  This  treaty,  con- 
cluded May  6,  1576,  was  called  the  Peace  of  Monsieur.  With 
Peace  of  regard  to  the  Protestants,  the  concessions  made 

Monsieur,  them  were   ratified   by  the   Edict   of   Beaulieu. 

Edict  o!  The  terms  of  this  edict  were  so  unexpected  and 

Beaulieu,  1576.  gQ  extraordinary  that  the  country  was  filled  with 
stupefaction.  The  Protestants  were  granted  full  liberty  of 
worship  everywhere  without  restrictions  of  any  sort ;  eight 
surety  cities,  mixed  chambers  in  the  parliaments,  that  is  to 
say,  chambers  with  two  Presidents,  one  Catholic  and  the  other 
Huguenot,  and  twelve  counsellors,  four  of  whom  were  to  be 
Huguenots  ;  Coligny  and  the  other  victims  of  the  Massacre 
of  Saint  Bartholomew  were  to  be  rehabilitated  and  the  verdicts 
against  them  rescinded  ;  Protestants  were  to  be  eligible  for 
all  posts,  and  the  meeting  of  the  States-General  was  promised. 
Never  had  the  Court  conceded  so  much — and  this,  too,  so  soon 
after  the  Massacre  of  Saint  Bartholomew  !  It  was  inexplicable, 
and  the  Catholics  were  completely  at  a  loss  to  understand  the 
reasons  for  such  indulgence.  In  Paris  the  public  refused  to 
light  bonfires,  and  when  the  government  wished  to  have  Te 
Deums  sung  to  celebrate  the  solemnization  of  peace,  the 
precentors  and  canons  refused  to  take  part  in  them.  The 
Edict  of  Beaulieu  was  destined  to  lead  to  many  other  dangerous 
complications  for  France. 

The  destitution  of  the  Court  was  indeed  pitiable.  In  spite 
of  the  loans  they  had  raised  they  had  not  a  penny  to  go  on  with, 
and  it  became  necessary  to  pawn  the  crown  jewels,  to  sell 
offices,  and  live  by  all  manner  of  expedients.  "  In  whatever 
direction  we  turn  our  eyes,"  wrote  Monvillier,  "  nothing  but 
despair  stares  us  in  the  face."  And  unfortunately,  the  public 
was  exasperated  because  Henry  III  did  not  stop  his  merry- 
making, but  continued  to  squander  and  give  away  the  little 
money  at  his  disposal  to  his  boon  companions.  Thus  on  the 
one  hand  the  King  was  indifferent,  and  on  the  other  the  feeble 
Government  was  yielding  everything  to  the  Protestants.  In 
these  circumstances  the  Catholics  came  to  the  conclusion  that 
as  the  power  of  the  Crown  could  not  or  would  not  defend  them, 
the  only  alternative  was  for  them  to  take  their  own  cause  in 
hand.  Thus  the  League — the  famous  League — was  formed  ; 
248 


THE    CATHOLIC    REACTION 

a  lamentable  expedient  to  which  subjects  were  driven,  creat- 
ing a  State  within  the  State,  in  order  to  demand  from  a  new 
The  League,  organization  the  protection  which  the  old  could 
1576.  no  longer  afford  them.     Its  results,  however,  were 

war,  disorder,  and  anarchy. 

The  origin  of  the  League  was  accidental.     By  the  terms 
of  the  Peace  of  Monsieur,  the  town  of  Peronne  had  been  given 
over  to  the  Prince  of  Conde,  as  a  guarantee-city.     But  the 
inhabitants  of  the  place  refused  to  accept  a  master  who  would 
they   feared    insist    upon    making    Huguenots    of    them    all. 
They  accordingly  combined  with  the  clergy,  the  magistrates, 
and  the  nobility  of  the  neighbourhood,  none  of  whom  were 
anxious  to  see  Peronne  turned  into  a  Protestant  town.     The 
idea  of  a  Catholic  league  was  thus    inaugurated  ;    it  spread 
rapidly  and  other  districts  followed  the  example  set  by  Peronne. 
In  Paris  it  was  owing  to  the  initiative  of  a  certain  lawyer, 
Pierre  Hennequin,  and  a  citizen  named  La  Bruyere,  that  the 
association  was  formed  with  the  consent  of  the   Guises.     A 
definite  programme  was  formulated  :  the  defence  of  the  Catholic 
religion  and  the  re-establishment  of  the  royal  authority,  the 
weakening  of  which  was  bringing  ruin  upon  the  Catholics.     The 
populace    joined   with   astonishing   rapidity   and   enthusiasm, 
so  ripe  was  the  moment  for  such  a  project.     Everywhere  leagues 
were  formed  and  provinces,  towns,  and  boroughs  gave  in  their 
adhesion,  but  all  were  merged  in  a  general  association  inspired 
by  one  spirit  and  one   desire.     The  question  of  choosing  a 
leader  arose,  and  public  opinion  pointed  to  Henry  of  Guise. 
Of  the  same  age  as  Henry  III,  taller  than  the  King,   with 
fair  curly  hair,  bright  eyes  and  a  sparse  beard,  his  majestic 
features  rendered  more  manly  by  his  scar,  the  young  hero  whose 
family  was  so  popular  attracted  the  sympathies  of  every  one 
by  his  easy  grace  of  bearing.     He  accepted  the  post. 

From  the  very  first  Henry  III  realized  how  humiliating 
and  how  exceedingly  dangerous  the  formation  of  the  League 
was  for  him.  He  tried  to  oppose  it.  "I  am  greatly  dis- 
pleased," he  wrote,  "  inasmuch  as  the  inhabitants  of  Peronne 
have  resolved  not  to  obey  my  commands."  When  he  saw  the 
extent  to  wliich  the  association  was  developing,  however,  he 
had  to  give  way  and  make  the  best  of  a  bad  business.     He  then 

249 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

declared  that  he  had  encouraged  it,  and  wrote  to  the  Duke  of 
Nevers :  "  The  Huguenots  maintain  that  these  associations 
have  been  formed  without  orders  from  me.  This  is  false.  I 
shall  establish  them  throughout  my  kingdom  and  shall  not  rest 
till  I  have  done  so."  On  reflection  he  had  come  to  the  con- 
clusion that  he  might  profit  by  the  League,  and  use  it  as  an 
instrument. 

To  the  Protestants,  already  weakened  by  the  feeling  that 
the  Reformation  was  no  longer  spreading,  and  still  suffering 
from  the  effects  of  the  Massacre  of  Saint  Bartholomew,  the 
violent  revolt  on  the  part  of  Catholic  pubUc  opinion  attested 
by  the  League,  had  all  the  appearance  of  intimidation.  They 
held  special  prayer-meetings  and  fasts  everywhere.  "  The 
ministers  of  Geneva  offered  up  special  prayers  on  behalf  of  the 
French  churches."  Formerly,  under  similar  circumstances, 
they  would  have  raised  troops,  bought  arms,  and  fortified 
towns.  But  times  were  changing  and  the  new  attitude  adopted 
by  the  Calvinists  betrayed  their  sense  of  inferiority. 

The  first  result  of  this  dual  situation  was  the  composition 
of  the  States-General  summoned  to  meet  at  Blois,  in  1576,  in 
States-  accordance    with   the   terms    of    the    Peace    of 

General  of         Monsieur.     The   elections   proved   favourable   to 
Blois,  1576.        the  League.     The  Protestants,   certain  of  being 
defeated,  did  not  even  stand.     Three  hundred  and  sixty-two 
deputies  were  returned.     As  a  matter  of  fact,  Henry  III,  who 
since  the  formation  of  the  League  had  become  seriously  anxious 
and  had  begun  to  direct  his  Government  himself,   had  con- 
sented to  the  meeting  of  the  States  for  the  sake  of  getting 
money  from  them,  and  in  order  to  lay  hands  on  the  formidable 
association.     The  opening  meeting  at  which  he  presided  took 
place  on  December  6  in  the  ancient  Salle  des  Etats  at  Blois, 
still  in  existence.     He  made  an  extremely  dignified  speech  in 
which,  after  paying  tribute  to  all  his  mother  had  done,  and 
saying  :     "  All  who   love   France   will  be   bound  for  ever  to 
praise  her  great  vigilance,"  he  assured  the  assembly  that  he 
intended  to  re-establish  order  and  public  peace,  and  to  redress 
abuses.     He    spoke    well.     At    the    proposal    of    an    eloquent 
lawyer,  named  Versoris,  the  house  declared  that  there  could 
be  only  one  religion  in  France — ^the  Catholic  religion — and  a 
250 


THE    CATHOLIC    REACTION 

formal  resolution  to  that  effect  was  carried.  Determined  to 
side  with  the  majority,  Henry  III  replied  that  he  would  abide 
by  the  Edict  of  Beaulieu.  Did  this  mean  war  against  the 
Huguenots  ?  Henry  of  Beam  protested  in  those  firm,  moving, 
and  loyal  terms  which  made  all  the  letters  he  wrote  at  this 
time  so  beautiful,  and  said :  "  Religion  is  implanted  in  the  hearts 
of  men  by  force  of  doctrine  and  belief  and  is  confirmed  by  living 
example  and  not  by  the  sword.  We  are  all  Frenchmen  and 
fellow-citizens  of  one  country  and  as  such  it  behoves  us  to  come 
to  an  agreement  founded  upon  reason  and  kindness  and  not 
upon  harshness  and  cruelty."  But  as  the  States  wished  for 
war  against  the  Huguenots,  Henry  III  opined  that  they 
would  forthwith  contribute  the  money  for  it.  On  the  motion 
of  a  deputy  from  Vermandois,  named  Jean  Bodin,  however, 
the  assembly  voted  for  the  re-establishment  of  religious  unity 
"  in  all  gentleness  without  recourse  to  war."  The  question  of 
the  finances  was  then  raised,  and  when  the  Government  con- 
fessed that  there  was  a  deficit  of  100  millions,  the  States  loudly 
condemned  the  extravagance  of  the  Exchequer.  On  being 
asked  for  a  grant  of  two  millions  by  means  of  a  hearth-tax  or 
a  tax  on  the  alienation  of  demesnial  property,  they  refused 
to  give  it,  or  only  granted  insignificant  subsidies.  Henry  III 
felt  that  he  had  been  fooled.  In  vain  he  had  himself  supported 
the  League  in  order  to  conciliate  the  deputies  and  had  even 
declared  himself  the  head  of  the  movement — a  strange  manoeu^'Te 
indeed  !  To  insist  would  have  been  undignified.  He  accord- 
ingly dissolved  the  States,  informing  them  that  as  they  refused 
to  make  war  he  had  no  alternative  but  to  treat  with  the 
Huguenots.  By  way  of  compensation  he  confined  himself 
to  drawing  up,  out  of  the  voluminous  papers  presented  to  him 
by  the  States  on  February  9,  1577,  one  of  those  grand  ordinances 
which  were  always  so  full  of  good  intentions,  but  never  operative. 
It  contained  363  articles  and  formed  the  Ordinance  of  Blois 
of  1579. 

After  the  dissolution  of  the  States,  and  a  few  insignificant 
acts  of  hostility,  Henry  III  signed  a  definite  peace  with  the 
Peace  oJ  Protestants.     This  w^as  the  Peace  of  Bergerac  of 

Bergerae,  1577.  September  17,  1577,  by  the  terms  of  which  the 
Calvinists  were  granted  liberty  of  conscience,  though  freedom 

251 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

of  worship  in  any  place  was  allowed  solely  on  condition  of 
obtaining  the  sanction  of  the  authorities.  The  mixed  chambers 
were  re-established,  but  only  in  the  southern  Parliaments.  This 
peace,  which  was  confirmed  by  the  Edict  of  Poitiers,  was  destined 
to  secure  seven  or  eight  years  of  tranquillity.  The  Protestants, 
with  ministers  and  princes  at  variance,  Henry  of  Navarre  an 
unwelcome  leader  to  many,  and  some  of  their  towns,  La 
Rochelle,  for  instance,  taking  up  the  attitude  of  independent 
republics,  were  divided  against  themselves.  They  had  lost 
their  pristine  vigour  and  were  now  in  a  condition  of  weakness 
and  paralysis. 

The  Protestant  question  being  at  rest  for  the  moment,  it 
remained  for  Henry  III  to  face  the  problems  presented  by  the 
Anjou  in  the  League  and  the  Catholic  princes.  The  most 
Netherlands.  pressing  of  these  was  the  conduct  of  the  latter. 
The  turbulence  of  the  ex-Duke  of  Alen9on,  who  had  become 
the  Duke  of  Anjou,  was,  in  the  first  place  an  occasion  of  per- 
petual alarms.  The  master  of  five  duchies  and  four  counties, 
with  an  income  of  400,000  crowns  and  an  establishment  almost 
as  large  as  the  King's,  the  Duke  of  Anjou  was  an  extremely 
dangerous  rival.  In  1577  an  opportunity  for  getting  rid  of 
him  occurred  which  Henry  III  seized  with  alacrity.  Ever 
since  1572  the  Netherlands — that  is  to  say  the  northern  Dutch 
provinces — had  been  in  a  state  of  rebellion  against  Spain,  and 
in  1577  the  southern  provinces  of  Flanders  joined  the  movement. 
The  Governor,  Don  Juan  of  Austria,  found  it  impossible  to 
hold  his  own,  and  anarchy  reigned.  The  French  envoy, 
Mondoucet,  conceived  the  idea  of  summoning  the  Duke  of 
Anjou  and  placing  him  at  the  head  of  the  rebellious  Catholics, 
thus  making  an  attempt  to  win  back  at  least  those  southern 
provinces  that  had  once  belonged  to  France.  The  Duke  of 
Anjou,  like  the  reckless  madcap  he  was,  consented  to  this 
plan,  and  Henry  III,  who  was  enchanted,  allowed  him  to  go, 
though  to  avoid  offending  Spain  he  refrained  from  formal 
recognition  of  the  expedition.  The  Duke  of  Anjou  entered 
Flanders  at  the  head  of  7000  men,  nobles  eager  for  war,  dis- 
banded soldiers  and  volunteers.  The  States-General,  the 
deliberative  assembly  of  the  rebel  provinces  of  the  north,  made 
a  pretence  of  accepting  this  succour,  though  determined,  as 
252 


THE    CATHOLIC    REACTION 

was  also  their  military  leader,  the  Prince  of  Orange,  to  insist 
upon  the  French  returning  over  the  frontier  the  moment  they 
had  no  further  need  of  them.  Anjou  took  Hainault,  Maubeuge, 
and  Binche.  But  at  this  point  he  was  obliged  to  stop  short. 
His  troops  were  plundering,  and  the  inhabitants  were  pro- 
testing, and  betraying  them  on  all  sides.  The  affair  was 
hopeless  and  Anjou,  unable  to  accomplish  anything,  returned 
to  France  at  the  end  of  three  months.  The  adventure,  however, 
had  only  been  postponed. 

On  the  side  of  Henry  of  Navarre  all  was  peaceful.  The 
prince  had  loyally  accepted  the  Peace  of  Bergerac,  and  had 
Henry  of  retired  to  his  gay  castle  of  Nerac,  devoting  himself 

Beam  at  entirely  to  a  life  of  ease  and  pleasure.     Henry  III 

Nerac.  gave  his  consent  for  his  sister,  Margaret — Queen 

Margot — to  join  her  husband  in  Gascony  ;  and  Catherine  de' 
Medici  decided  to  go  with  her.  The  two  set  off  together  and 
took  the  journey  slowly,  giving  balls  and  festivals  everywhere 
and  preaching  peace  and  good-will,  visiting  the  towns  and 
sojourning  in  them  ;  their  travels  took  them  a  year.  Though 
they  found  the  provinces  fairly  tranquil  they  were  nevertheless 
received  with  loud  complaints  on  the  part  of  the  people,  who 
inveighed  against  the  taxes  and  the  poverty-stricken  condition 
of  the  State.  "  They  are  ready  to  believe  anything  against 
the  King,"  said  Estoile,  "  who  daily  burdens  them  with  fresh 
impositions  and  new  officials  and  pays  none  of  his  debts  out 
of  the  vast  sums  he  raises  thereby,  but  spends  them  on  pro- 
digal luxuries  and  huge  gifts."  When  he  heard  of  these 
complaints  Henry  III  replied:  "These  are  the  results  of  the 
League  that  are  beginning  to  make  themselves  felt.  But  I 
will  put  a  stop  to  them  if  I  can."  The  arrival  of  Margaret  at 
Nerac  served  to  redouble  the  gaiety  of  the  little  Court,  at  which 
there  was  a  perpetual  round  of  dances,  hunting-parties,  and 
festivities.  The  Protestant  ministers  were  scandalized.  Henry 
and  his  wife,  who  vied  with  each  other  in  frivolity  and  incon- 
stancy, passed  the  time  joyously.  A  cloud,  however,  arose 
and  for  a  moment  cast  a  gloom  over  the  period  of  tranquillity 
which  had  begun  to  set  Henry  Ill's  fears  at  rest.  In  the 
north,  Conde,  irritated  by  provocations  on  the  part  of  the 
League,  had  suddenly  seized  La  Fere  ;    whilst  in  the  south, 

253 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

the  town  of  Cahors,  which  was  part  of  Margaret  of  Valois' 
dowry,  refused  to  receive  the  Governor  sent  by  the  King  of 
Navarre.  The  latter,  enraged  by  this,  set  out  hurriedly  for 
the  place,  and  on  May  29, 1580,  placing  a  petard  at  the  entrance, 
blew  up  the  gate  and  threw  himself  into  the  streets  at  the 
head  of  a  troop  of  cavalry  as  if  he  had  been  a  simple  carabineer. 
At  the  same  moment  Lesdiguieres  in  Dauphiny  showed  signs 
of  activity.  Full  of  anxiety  at  these  commotions,  Henry  III 
dispatched  Matignon  to  La  Fere,  Mayenne  to  Dauphiny,  and 
Biron  in  the  direction  of  Guyenne,  at  the  head  of  bodies  of  troops. 
La  Fere  was  recaptured  and  a  treaty  signed  at  Fleix,  in  Perigord, 
Peace  of  reiterating  the  articles  of  the  Peace  of  Bergerac, 

Fleix,  1580.  put  an  end  to  disturbances  which,  according 
to  I'Estoile,  had  been  merely  "  a  little  straw  fire,"  "  a  lover's 
quarrel "  ;  the  brilUant  life  at  Nerac  resumed  its  course. 
An  unexpected  event,  however,  was  destined  to  give  it  a  rude 
shock,  and  to  change  the  whole  future  of  the  Eang  of  Navarre. 
It  was  to  place  both  him  and  the  Kingdom  of  France  in  a 
terrible  situation,  confusing  the  problems  presented  by  the 
princes  and  by  the  Protestants  to  Hem-y  III  in  such  a  way  as 
to  make  the  reign  of  Henry  III  one  of  the  most  dramatic  and 
most  bloodstained  through  which  a  King  of  France  had  ever 
lived. 

The  Duke  of  Anjou,  who  had  never  abandoned  the  idea  of 
the  expedition  to  the  Netherlands,  was  making  preparations 
to  return  to  Flanders.  He  had  paid  a  visit  to  England  with  a 
view  to  obtaining  the  good-will  of  Elizabeth.  But  she  was 
holding  herself  in  reserve.  The  success  of  Alessandro  Farnese, 
Prince  of  Parma,  the  new  Spanish  Governor  of  Brussels,  who 
proved  more  fortunate  than  Don  Juan  of  Austria,  had  induced 
the  States-General  of  the  United  Provinces  and  the  Prince  of 
Orange  to  make  a  fresh  appeal  to  the  French  King's  brother. 
They  offered  to  make  him  commander-in-chief  of  the  forces. 
The  moral  support  of  the  great  neighbouring  kingdom  would, 
they  thought,  strengthen  them,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  Henry 
III  refused  to  recognize  his  brother's  activities.  Anjou, 
on  his  side,  hoped  to  be  made  king.  Every  one  was  buoyed 
up  with  false  hopes.  In  June,  1581,  the  Duke  of  Anjou 
assembled  his  troops,  and  in  July,  Holland  and  Zetland  de- 
254 


THE    CATHOLIC    REACTION 

finitely  declared  themselves  independent  of  Spain.  At  the 
head  of  14,000  men,  of  whom  3000  were  gentlemen,  Anjou  set 
out  on  the  march,  raised  the  siege  of  Cambray,  entered  Ghent 
Anjou  returns  and  Antwerp,  and  v^^as  crowned  Duke  of  Brabant 
to  the  and  Count  of  Flanders.     Attracted  by  success, 

Netherlands.  adventurers  of  all  nationalities  hurried  to  join 
him,  and  the  young  victor,  finding  himself  well  supported,  and 
impatient  at  the  equivocal  attitude  assumed  by  the  States- 
General,  determined  to  make  a  dash  for  "  his  sovereignty,"  to 
take  it  a  la  frangaise  and  grasp  it  vigorously,  with  or  against 
their  will.  As  Busbecq,  the  imperial  ambassador  remarked, 
"  his  head  was  turned."  He  captured  places  belonging  to  the 
States-General  by  surprise,  and  tried  to  lay  hands  on  Antwerp 
in  a  similar  manner.  But  the  citizens  of  this  town  rose  up 
against  him.  Hunted  through  the  streets,  the  Duke  of  Anjou's 
troops  found  it  impossible  to  get  the  upper  hand.  Two  thousand 
of  them  were  massacred  and  the  rest  driven  out.  This  defeat 
proved  Anjou's  undoing.  Irrevocably  compromised  in  the 
eyes  of  the  Netherlanders,  he  had  no  alternative  but  to  take 
his  departure.  He  held  out  for  two  months  longer  and  then 
returned  to  France  ;  his  adventure  was  at  an  end.  Casting 
about  for  some  one  to  blame,  he  accused  Henry  III  of  not 
supporting  him,  sulked,  and  refused  to  return  to  Court. 
Catherine  de'  Medici  succeeded  in  reconciling  the  two  brothers, 
who  met  again  in  1584.  The  Duke  of  Anjou,  however,  like  all 
the  members  of  this  unfortunate  family,  was  constitutionally 
delicate  ;  worn  out  by  excesses,  he  was  suddenly  attacked  by 
violent  haemorrhage  of  the  lungs.  The  end  came  rapidly.  On 
June  10  he  breathed  his  last  at  Chateau  Thierry  at  the  age  of 
thirty- one,  after  a  few  hom's  of  illness. 

But  now  the  King's  last  brother  was  dead,  he  himself  had 
no  children,  and  the  question  of  the  succession  became  pressing. 
Henry  of  ^Y  virtue  of  the  traditional  rules  of  succession 

Beam  hek  to  in  order  of  primogeniture,  the  nearest  heir  was 
the  throne.  Henry  of  Beam,  King  of  Navarre,  descendant 
of  a  sixth  son  of  Saint  Louis  and  cousin  in  the  22nd  degree  of 
the  reigning  monarch.  The  throne  of  France  was  the  heritage 
of  a  Protestant  prince  !  The  country  was  filled  with  consterna- 
tion at  the  idea.     A  Protestant  King  was  an  impossible  event- 

255 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

uality.  The  eldest  son  of  the  Church  could  not  be  a  heretic  ; 
as  such,  he  could  not  even  be  crowned.  A  violent  campaign 
broke  out  in  the  press.  The  year  1584  gave  the  signal  for  an 
outburst  of  publications  which  continued  throughout  the  reign 
of  Henry  III,  forming,  with  the  reign  of  Louis  XIII  and  the 
period  of  the  Fronde,  one  of  the  three  epochs  under  the  old 
regime  when  "  the  political  press  "  was  most  prolific.  The 
agitation  was  extremely  hvely  in  the  immediate  circle  of  the 
princes.  In  the  opinion  of  Henry  III  there  was  but  one  solution 
— ^that  Henry  of  Beam  should  become  a  convert.  He  ap- 
proached him  on  the  matter,  and  the  Eang  of  Navarre's  friends 
added  their  counsels  to  his.  Henry  of  Beam,  however,  loyally 
replied  that  he  could  not  present  the  nation  with  a  spectacle 
of  such  fickleness  of  conscience  merely  for  his  personal  ad- 
vantage. Let  them  call  a  council  together,  he  suggested,  to 
discuss  the  two  religions  with  a  view  to  his  instruction.  He 
asked  for  nothing  better  than  enlightenment.  Any  other 
course  was  alien  to  his  straightforward  character.  The  members 
of  the  League  thereupon  declared  that  under  these  circum- 
stances, there  was  no  alternative  but  to  summon  the  States- 
General  and  make  them  alter  the  order  of  succession  to  the 
throne ;  the  nation  should  revive  its  ancient  rights.  The 
partisans  of  Henry  of  Navarre  retorted  that  there  was  a  legal 
order  of  succession,  which  the  States  had  no  power  to  modify. 
But  already  future  candidates  for  the  throne  were  being  dis- 
cussed, and  the  name  of  Henry  of  Guise  was  in  many  mouths. 
Genealogists  even  proved  that  the  illustrious  family  of  Lorraine 
was  descended  from  the  Carlovingians — a  very  fantastic  theory — 
and  all  extolled  the  steadfast  faith  of  those  who  had  so  valiantly 
defended  the  Catholic  religion.  At  all  events,  they  declared, 
the  States  would  do  as  they  pleased.  Others  brought  forward 
the  name  of  the  King's  uncle,  the  aged  Cardinal  Bourbon  ; 
which  meant  postponing  rather  than  solving  the  problem. 
Foreign  countries  followed  the  discussion  with  interest.  Philip 
II,  alarmed  at  the  prospect  of  a  Protestant  King  in  France, 
offered  to  come  to  an  understanding  with  the  Guises,  to  which 
they  agreed.  They  were  somewhat  surprised  at  the  turn  things 
were  taking,  but  did  not  dare  to  stipulate  that  the  throne  should 
revert  to  them.  By  the  Treaty  of  Joinville  of  January,  1585, 
256 


THE    CATHOLIC    REACTION 

which  they  signed  with  Spain  on  behalf  of  the  League,  it  was 
Treaty  of  decided  that  Cardinal  Bourbon   should    succeed 

Joinville,  1585.  to  the  throne.  The  King  of  Spain  was  to  give 
subsidies,  in  return  for  which  Beam  and  Navarre  were  to  be 
ceded  to  him  later  on.  Thus,  not  content  with  forming 
a  State  within  the  State,  the  League  was  treating  with  the 
foreigner  ! 

But  they  were  emboldened  by  the  fact  that  the  sentiment  of 
the  great  majority  in  the  kingdom  was  on  their  side.  It 
was  clear  that  the  country  would  not  have  the  Huguenots 
at  any  price,  much  less,  therefore,  would  they  tolerate  a  king 
who  was  a  heretic.  The  League  increased  with  amazing  rapidity 
and  everybody  hastened  to  join  it.  From  the  pulpits  preachers 
inflamed  their  congregations  at  the  mere  idea  of  becoming  the 
subjects  of  a  Calvinist ;  and  pamphlets  were  issued  in  vast 
numbers.  During  the  general  effervescence  the  League  formed 
a  committee  in  Paris  composed  at  first  of  five  members  ;  but 
after  1587  this  number  was  raised  to  sixteen,  who  rapidly 
assumed  a  revolutionary  authority,  and  laid  down  the  law  as 
masters.  They  were  known  as  the  "  Sixteen."  The  forces 
of  anarchy  began  to  be  organized. 

In  the  midst  of  all  this  turmoil  Henry  HI  was  reaping  the 
fruits  of  his  life  of  dissipation  ;  he  was  hated  by  the  people. 
Unpopularity  F^r  from  restraining  his  fantastic  tastes,  he  had 
of  Henry  III.  exaggerated  them,  and,  in  spite  of  the  general 
poverty,  continued  to  heap  honom's  and  money  upon  his  boon 
companions,  for  whom  he  displayed  a  ridiculous  attachment. 
These  young  men,  Caylus,  Saint  Luc,  d'O,  d'Arques,  Saint 
Mesgrin,  Mauleon,  Maugiron,  Livarot,  Grammont,  and  La 
Valette  had  exasperated  the  public  by  their  absurdities,  their 
haughty  and  insolent  airs,  their  pretentious  manners  and  their 
excesses.  The  people  called  them  the  King's  "  minions." 
Duels,  however,  and  acts  of  revenge  were  thinning  their  ranks. 
Caylus  and  Maugiron  had  been  killed  in  duels,  and  Saint  Mesgrin 
had  been  assassinated.  Henry  HI  was  weak  enough  to  raise 
mausoleums  of  exaggerated  magnificence  to  their  memory, 
after  giving  way  to  excessive  grief.  He  had  three  special 
favourites  :  d'Arques,  whom  he  had  made  Duke  of  Joyeuse 
and  married  to  one  of  the  Queen's  sisters  during  the  course  of 

R  257 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

some  scandalous  festivities,  when  seventeen  banquets  were 
given  to  a  crowd  of  people  bedizened  with  gold  and  precious 
stones  ;  La  Valette,  who  was  created  Duke  of  Epernon  %  and 
d'O,  who  afterwards  fell  into  disgrace.  The  King  called  them 
"  his  three  children."  Joyeuse  and  £pernon  were  extremely 
powerful  "  grand  viziers  "  as  the  people  dubbed  them.  The 
latter,  in  the  end,  became  "the  most  conspicuous  of  them  all," 
the  King's  first  "  minion  "  "his  eldest  son."  In  1587  he 
married  the  Countess  of  Candale  with  great  pomp ;  the  King 
gave  the  bride  a  necklace  of  100  pearls  valued  at  100,000  crowns, 
and  the  bridegroom  400,000  crowns  in  cash.  The  public  and 
"  the  press  "  thereupon  attacked  Henry  III. 

The  King  at  last  became  seriously  anxious.  He  cross- 
examined  the  Guises  and  demanded  an  explanation.  They 
replied  that  public  opinion  was  greatly  distm'bed  by  the  question 
of  the  succession,  but  that  guarantees  were  all  that  was  re- 
quired. Even  in  the  King's  immediate  circle  the  Court  was 
divided.  Many  were  in  favour  of  the  League,  whose  intentions 
were,  they  said,  radically  just.  Among  these  were  the  Queen's 
brother,  Philip  Emmanuel  of  Lorraine,  whom  Henry  III  had 
created  Duke  of  Mercceur,  and  made  Governor  of  Brittany  ;  the 
Duke  of  Nevers,  and  Joyeuse.  ]Epernon,  on  the  other  hand, 
supported  the  cause  of  Henry  of  Beam.  Henry  III  could  not 
come  to  a  decision.  If  he  had  been  master  of  the  situation  he 
would  have  persuaded  the  King  of  Navarre  to  recant,  and 
suppressed  the  League.  As  it  was,  he  could  do  neither  the 
one  nor  the  other. 

The  League  went  its  way.  In  March  the  Duke  of  Guise, 
le  Balafri,  occupied  Chalons  in  its  name,  and  his  brother,  the 
Cardinal  Duke  of  Mayenne,   who  was  thirty-one,   a  tall, 

Bourbon's  elegant  man  with  a  gentle  expression,  and  great 
manifesto.  courage  and  vigour,  seized  Djjon.  Cardinal 
Bourbon  had  retired  to  Peronne.  On  March  31  he  published 
a  grand  manifesto — or  at  least  it  was  published  with  his  signature 
— ^in  which  the  League  declared  that  it  aimed  at  securing  a 
Catholic  successor  to  the  throne,  the  establishment  of  one 
religion  only  in  France,  the  convocation  of  the  States-General, 
and  their  regular  assemblage  every  three  years,  and  all  this 
without  prejudice  to  the  privileges  of  the  clergy,  the  nobility, 
258 


THE    CATHOLIC   REACTION 

the  Parliaments,  and  the  bourgeoisie.  The  unfortunate  King 
of  France  found  himself  in  the  most  precarious  predicament. 
He  had  neither  an  army  nor  money.  "  About  his  person," 
wrote  Busbecq,  "  he  has  only  a  few  feeble  and  powerless 
friends."  The  provincial  Governors  followed  the  example  of 
the  public  and  pronounced  themselves  in  favour  of  the  League. 
Even  the  ministers,  Cheverny,  Belli^vre,  and  Villeroy  hesitated. 
The  entire  sympathies  of  the  nation  were  on  the  side  of  the 
Catholic  association.  Henry  III  published  a  manifesto  in  reply 
Henry  Ill's  to  the  one  issued  by  Bourbon,  in  which  he  en- 
reply,  deavoured  to  defend  his  policy,  by  explaining 
that  he  had  concluded  peace  with  the  Huguenots  because  the 
States-General  had  refused  to  provide  him  with  the  funds  to 
make  war  upon  them  ;  that  after  all  he  had  secured  long  years 
of  peace  by  this  means  ;  and  without  discussing  the  principles 
of  the  League,  he  reprobated  its  methods.  The  manifesto  was 
a  colourless  production,  devoid  of  dignity,  and  its  effect  was 
negligible.  Only  one  solution  remained :  to  treat  with  the 
League.  Catherine  de'  Medici  devoted  herself  to  the  task, 
and  went  to  fipernay,  in  Champagne,  to  discuss  matters  with 
the  Duke  and  Cardinal  Bourbon.  But  they  insisted  upon  war 
against  the  Protestants.  The  problem  was  insoluble,  for  the 
King  no  more  had  money  or  men  at  Ms  command  for  an  attack 
upon  the  Huguenots  than  he  had  for  fighting  the  Guises  and 
their  party.  Catherine  therefore  replied  that  in  this  case  the 
League  must  bear  the  burden  and  expense  of  the  war.  The 
Guises  in  return  demanded  some  towns  as  guarantees.  Thus, 
with  territory  and  authority  alike  divided,  the  kingdom  was 
threatened  with  dismemberment  on  every  side. 

These  painful  negotiations  dragged  on  for  three  months 
and  finally  the  Government  had  to  give  way.  By  the  Treaty 
Treaty  o£  of  Nemours  of  July  7,  1585,  the  King  consented 

Nemours,  1585.  to  publish  an  edict  making  Catholicism  the  only 
religion  allowed  in  France,  and  commanding  the  people  to  con- 
form within  six  months  or  else  leave  the  country.  The  mixed 
chambers  were  abolished  and  the  towns  given  to  the  Protestants 
were  withdrawn,  whilst  others  were  handed  over  to  the  League 
for  five  years.  Its  leaders,  Cardinal  Bourbon,  Guise,  Mercoeui-, 
Aumale  and  Elbeuf,  were  granted  the  right  of  maintaining  a 

259 


CENTURY    OF     THE    RENAISSANCE 

private  bodyguard,  and,  to  crown  all,  it  was  formally  acknow- 
ledged that  the  League  had  acted  in  the  best  interests  of  the 
State.  It  was  a  pitiful  business  !  After  having  made  every 
possible  concession  to  the  Protestants,  the  Government  was 
now  handing  itself  over  bound  hand  and  foot  to  the  members 
of  the  League  and  making  itself  their  chattel.  "  The  King  was 
on  foot,"  said  I'Estoile,  "  and  the  League  was  on  horseback." 

The  person  who  suffered  most  was  Henry  of  Beam.  He 
had  always  declared  that  he  did  not  know  whether  he  would 
ever  ascend  the  throne,  but  that  he  was  certain  that  men's 
consciences  should  not  be  forced,  and  that  they  should  be  free 
to  believe  what  they  liked.  The  Treaty  of  Nemours  over- 
whelmed him.  "  My  fear  of  the  evils  I  foresee,"  he  told  the 
Marquis  de  la  Force,  "  is  so  great  that  it  has  made  my  moustache 
turn  white."  He  wrote  an  eloquent  letter  of  protest  to  the 
King  of  France  whilst  the  Huguenots  in  despair  prescribed 
prayers  and  fasts.  After  twenty  years  of  struggle  they  had 
returned  to  the  point  from  which  they  had  started,  and  they 
were  now  in  the  presence  of  a  formidable  foe  indeed,  the  name- 
less mob,  whose  strength  was  increased  tenfold  by  their  con- 
fidence in  a  successful  issue,  and  the  knowledge  that  they  were 
sailing  before  the  wind. 

But  at  this  juncture  Henry  Ill's  cynical  and  mocking  spirit 
came  once  more  to  the  surface.  He  was  as  indignant  as  any  one 
Preparations  ^^  ^^e  extremities  to  which  he  had  been  reduced, 
for  Civil  War.  He  informed  the  League  that  it  was  now  ob- 
viously necessary  for  him  to  make  war  upon  the  Calvinists,  but 
that  he  would  require  three  armies  for  this  object,  which  it 
would  be  their  business  to  raise  for  him.  Secondly,  he  would 
need  money,  and  as  he  himself  was  ready  to  ruin  himself  and 
give  "  his  last  shirt  "  in  the  cause,  he  considered  that  the 
Catholics  should  be  prepared  to  do  as  much.  He  therefore 
informed  them  that  he  should  cease  to  pay  the  salaries  of  the 
officers  and  the  interest  on  the  Hotel  de  Ville  funds,  that  he 
intended  to  tax  the  citizens,  and  put  ecclesiastical  property 
up  to  sale.  This  retort  provoked  vehement  protests.  "  I  am 
very  much  afraid,"  Henry  III  replied,  "  that  if  we  try  to  stop 
Protestant  services  we  shall  greatly  endanger  the  mass  !  '* 
Of  the  three  armies  demanded,  one  was  to  protect  the  King 
260 


THE    CATHOLIC    REACTION 

in  Paris,  the  second,  under  the  command  of  Mayenne,  was  to 
march  south  against  Henry  of  Beam,  and  the  third — since 
news  had  been  received  that  German  Protestants  were  on  the 
way  to  help  their  co-religionists  in  France — was  to  keep  watch 
over  the  eastern  frontier  under  the  leadership  of  Guise.  Having 
made  up  his  mind  to  act,  Henry  III  wrote  to  the  King  of  Navarre, 
asking  him  to  recant,  and  ordering  the  Huguenots  to  stop 
their  services  and  give  up  the  towns  they  held.  This  amounted 
to  a  declaration  of  war.  Henry  of  Beam  sent  out  in  all  direc- 
tions letters  which  he  made  public  with  the  object  of  justifying 
his  conduct,  and  throwing  the  responsibility  for  the  events 
that  were  taking  place  upon  the  Guises.  He  reiterated  his 
desire  for  instruction  in  the  matter  of  religion,  on  condition 
that  a  council  were  summoned  for  this  purpose,  and  declined  to 
obey  the  King's  command  to  stop  the  Protestant  services  and 
give  up  the  towns.  The  Protestants  increased  their  mani- 
festos, but  took  up  a  defensive  instead  of  an  offensive  attitude, 
clumsily  accusing  the  Catholics  of  undermining  the  authority 
of  the  King,  the  offence  with  which  they  themselves  had  been 
so  bitterly  reproached  in  the  past. 

Whereupon,  on  September  9,  1585,  there  arrived  from  Rome 
a  thundering  Bull,  which  the  League  had  demanded  from  the 
Excommunica-  ^^P^'  Sixtus  V,  solemnly  excommunicating  Henry 
tion  of  Henry  of  Beam  and  his  cousin  the  Prince  of  Conde, 
of  Beam  and  declaring  them  both  heretics  and  renegades, 
Conde.  cutting  them  off  from  the   succession,   and  de- 

finitively discrediting  them  in  the  eyes  of  convinced  Catholics. 
It  was  a  rude  blow.  The  King  of  Navarre  appealed  to  the 
Court  of  Peers.  "As  it  is  contrary  to  the  laws  of  the  land," 
he  exclaimed,  "  for  the  Pope  to  arrogate  to  himself  the  right 
of  determining  the  succession  to  the  throne  in  such  a  manner, 
the  Bull  is  null  and  void  in  France."  Pamphlets  appeared, 
supporting  his  protestations.  Jm'ists  were  also  of  opinion  that 
this  act  on  the  part  of  the  Pope  was  an  infringement  of  the  rights 
of  the  Crown.  The  clergy,  taken  by  surprise,  held  their  peace, 
whilst  the  moderates  openly  expressed  their  indignation. 

Nevertheless,  the  League  put  three  armies  in  the  field. 
Hostilities,  however,  were  merely  tentative.  Conde  had  col- 
lected troops  in  Poitou,  but  they  were  disbanding.     Mayenne 

261 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

occupied  a  few  places  in  Limousin,  and  Henry  of  Beam 
Civil  War.  manoeuvred,  holding  himself  in  reserve.  Once  again 
Catherine  de'  Medici  endeavoured  to  arrange  matters,  and 
conferences  were  held  at  Saint-Bris,  between  Cognac  and  Jarnac, 
on  October  18,  1586.  The  solution  of  all  the  difficulties  was 
still  to  be  found  in  the  conversion  of  the  King  of  Navarre,  but, 
Henry  of  Beam,  ever  loyal  to  his  cause,  returned  the  same  reply. 
And,  indeed,  such  was  the  condition  of  men's  minds  after  the 
issue  of  the  Papal  Bull,  that  his  conversion  would  have  lost  him 
his  friends  without  winning  over  his  enemies.  He  demanded 
that  the  League  should  be  severely  reprimanded,  and  even 
completely  suppressed.  The  conferences  were  foredoomed  to 
failure.  Meanwhile  in  Paris,  the  public,  uneasy  at  these  negotia- 
tions, began  to  agitate.  The  Sixteen  declared  that  no  reliance 
could  be  placed  on  Henry  III,  and  proposed  to  seize  his  person. 
This  was  a  serious  insurrectionary  design,  the  prologue,  possibly, 
of  a  deliberately  planned  revolution.  Terrified  by  this  de- 
magogic spirit,  the  Guises  refused  their  support,  and  here  the 
matter  ended  for  the  time  being. 

The  Germans,  whose  arrival  had  long  been  expected,  at 
last  appeared  upon  the  frontier  to  the  number  of  35,000,  cavalry, 
lansquenets,  Swiss  and  Grisons  under  the  command  of  the 
Baron  von  Dohna.  Their  intention  was  to  go  to  the  support 
of  the  King  of  Navarre  in  the  south.  The  Duke  of  Guise  set 
out  in  pursuit  at  the  head  of  15,000  men.  The  Germans 
captured  Chatillon-sur-Seine,  and  marched  towards  La  Charite 
in  order  to  cross  the  Loire.  Henry  III  with  some  troops  took 
up  a  post  of  observation  at  Gien.  To  hold  Henry  of  Beam  in 
check  he  had  already  dispatched  his  young  favourite,  the 
beloved  minion,  Joyeuse,  to  whom  he  had  confided  his  best 
soldiers.  Joyeuse  advanced,  took  Saint-Maixent,  and  at 
Battle  o5  Coutras  fell  in  with  the  troops  of  the  King  of 

Coutras,  ISS"?.  Navarre.  His  own  forces  were  twice  as  strong, 
and  he  decided  to  attack  (October  20,  1587).  To  judge  by  the 
appearance  of  the  Catholic  army,  which  was  well  equipped  and 
numerous,  and  that  of  the  Huguenot  force,  poor,  ragged,  and 
armed  with  rusty  swords,  the  result  seemed  a  foregone  con- 
clusion. But  Joyeuse  had  to  reckon  with  the  valour  of  Henry 
of  Navarre,  who  charged  with  an  impetus  which  carried  along 
262 


THE    CATHOLIC    REACTION 

his  whole  army.  The  Catholics  were  repulsed.  Four  hundred 
nobles  of  the  League  remained  upon  the  field,  whilst  Joyeuse, 
Death  of  thrown  from  his  horse,  was  struck  by  three  bullets, 

Joyeuse.  and    killed.     He    was    only    twenty-eight.     The 

battle  of  Coutras  was  the  first  victory  won  by  the  Huguenots 
since  the  beginning  of  the  civil  v/ars.  It  produced  a  profound 
impression  and  once  more  aroused  a  feeling  of  exasperation  on 
the  part  of  the  League,  expecially  against  Henry  III.  They 
reproached  the  King  with  having  sacrificed  his  army  and  the 
public  interest  to  a  foolish  wish  to  give  an  inexperienced  young 
man,  his  minion,  the  opportunity  of  distinguishing  himself  in 
the  field.  The  victory,  however,  was  a  barren  one  for  the 
Calvinists,  who  were  much  divided,  and  had  comparatively 
few  supporters  under  arms.  After  the  battle  Henry  of  Bearn 
rejoined  the  Countess  of  Guiche,  whom  he  adored.  He  was 
sharply  censured  for  this  proceeding. 

The  Germans,  abandoning  the  intention  of  crossing  the 
Loire  near  La  Charite,  returned  northwards  towards  La  Beauce, 
Battles  of  with  the  intention  of  fetching  a  compass  and 

Vimory  and  descending  upon  Vendome  and  Saumur,  where 
Auueau,  1587.  they  could  cross  the  Loire  more  easily.  The 
Duke  of  Guise  followed  them.  At  Vimory,  near  Montargis, 
he  seized  an  opportunity  to  attack  part  of  their  columns, 
burning  a  camp  and  seizing  the  money-chest  and  horses.  This 
success  was  vociferously  applauded.  On  another  occasion,  by 
means  of  a  forced  march  accomplished  by  a  body  of  picked  men, 
he  surprised  the  enemy  at  Auneau  (November  24,  1587)  and  cut 
them  to  pieces  ;  2000  Germans  were  massacred.  The  rest  were 
discouraged.  The  winter  was  setting  in  cold  and  raw  ;  they 
had  no  clothes  and  lacked  provisions.  They  went  to  Henry  III, 
who  had  advanced  towards  Vendome,  and  he  consented  to 
treat  with  them  and  allow  them  to  return  to  Germany  in  peace. 
The  Guises,  who  declared  that  they  could  make  a  speedy  end 
of  the  remaining  invaders,  were  loud  in  their  disapproval. 

On  his  return  to  Paris,  Guise  was  greeted  with  acclamations. 
Popularity  The  Bang,  it  was  said,  had  done  nothing  except 

of  Guise.  send  his  unworthy  favourite,   Joyeuse,   to  bring 

about  the  defeat  of  the  Catholic  army  at  Coutras,  whilst 
Guise   alone,  with   the   modest    army   at   his   command,    had 

263 


CENTURY    OF   THE    RENAISSANCE 

achieved  some  result.  "  Saul  hath  slain  his  thousands,  but 
David  his  tens  of  thousands  "  was  the  cry  that  was  repeated 
on  all  sides.  The  Duke  was  called  "  Moses,  Gideon,  and  David," 
and  his  popularity  increased  proportionately  as  Henry  III  lost 
favour  and  incurred  public  odium.  The  King,  conscious  of 
the  state  of  affairs,  was  irritated  to  the  last  degree.  He  felt 
the  menacing  power  of  Guise  increasing  daily  before  him.  The 
absence  of  a  direct  heir  to  the  throne,  the  prospect  of  a  Huguenot 
successor  who  was  unacceptable  to  the  country,  the  public  dis- 
cussions on  the  rights  of  the  States-General  to  revive  the  ancient 
privilege  of  the  nation  to  choose  its  own  king,  the  latent  can- 
didature of  Guise  to  the  throne,  and  the  danger  that  if  public 
feeling  became  embittered,  means  would  be  found  to  hasten 
the  moment  for  the  transmission  of  the  crown,  provided  an 
aggregate  of  elements  which  made  his  situation  intolerable. 
He  began  to  be  seriously  alarmed.  His  crown,  nay,  his  very 
life,  was  in  danger.  He  had  Polybius  and  Machiavelli  read 
aloud  to  him.  He  made  up  his  mind  to  form  about  his  person 
a  nucleus  of  firm,  reliable  and  devoted  partisans,  who  would 
at  least  be  capable,  in  case  of  extremity,  of  defending  his  life. 
x\s  early  as  1578,  when  his  mind  had  been  vaguely  preoccupied 
with  considerations  of  this  nature,  he  had  created  a  new  order 
of  chivalry,  the  famous  order  of  the  Holy  Ghost — in  imitation 
of  that  formerly  founded  by  one  of  the  Anjous — ^to  take  the  place 
of  the  Order  of  Saint  Michael,  instituted  by  Louis  XI,  which 
had  been  discredited  by  abuse.  The  new  knights,  whose  number 
was  limited  to  a  hundred,  wore  a  blue  ribbon,  and  took  most 
rigorous  oaths  of  loyalty.  "  His  Majesty,"  wrote  I'Estoile, 
"  conceived  the  idea  of  strengthening  himself  by  means  of  these 
new  knights,  who  would,  he  believed,  be  swift  and  faithful  to 
defend  him  should  any  commotion  arise."  But  he  did  not  stop 
here.  He  created  a  special  body  of  forty-five  nobles,  chiefly 
men  of  Gascony,  vigorous  and  courageous  fighters  in  the  prime 
of  life — from  twenty-five  to  forty  years  of  age — lively  and 
unscrupulous  swashbucklers.  He  paid  them  a  salary  of  1200 
crowns,  which  was  a  large  amount  for  those  days,  fed  them, 
provided  them  with  everything  and  refused  them  notliing,  but 
demanded  of  them  absolute  devotion.  These  ruthless  individuals 
understood  his  intention  :  they  were  to  be  the  "  King's  trusty 
264 


THE    CATHOLIC    REACTION 

bodyguard,"  ready  for  any  emergency.     Events  in  Paris  seemed 
to  justify  these  precautions. 

Day  by  day  the  agitation  in  that  city  increased  and  hatred 
for  the  King  waxed  stronger.  People  no  longer  hesitated  to 
speak  of  him  in  terms  of  contempt,  as  though  the  ancient  cult 
of  royalty  were  already  a  thing  of  the  past.  He  was  called  a 
royal  drone,  a  Sardanapalus,  and  abusive  placards  about  him 
were  posted  up.  Finally,  it  was  currently  agreed  that  it  was 
absurd  to  keep  upon  the  throne  a  monarch  so  weak,  so  false, 
and  so  maleficent  in  matters  of  religion,  so  scandalous  in  his 
life,  and  so  revolting  in  the  manner  in  which  he  abandoned 
himself  to  unworthy  favourites.  The  Sixteen,  who  little  by 
little,  were  forming  a  sort  of  revolutionary  government,  outside 
the  regular  authorities,  wrote  to  the  magistrates  of  the  large 
towns  in  France,  such  as  Lyons,  Rouen,  Amiens,  and  Orleans, 
asking  them  whether  it  would  not  be  as  well  to  face  the  pos- 
sibility of  deposing  Henry  III.  The  Duchess  of  Montpensier 
said  that  "  she  carried  in  her  girdle  the  scissors  which  would 
give  a  third  crown  to  brother  Henry  of  Valois." 

In  the  presence  of  provocations  such  as  these,  Henry  III 
determined  to  have  done  with  moderation.  The  Guises  had 
Insubordina-  demanded  the  vacant  Governorship  of  Picardy 
tion  o£  Guise,  for  the  Duke  of  Aumale,  a  member  of  their  family. 
The  King  refused  it,  and  nominated  the  Duke  of  Ncvers  instead. 
Events  were  coming  to  a  climax  with  dramatic  rapidity. 
D 'Aumale  occupied  some  towns  in  Picardy,  and  the  Duke  of 
Guise  had  the  impertinence  to  write  and  tell  him  to  keep  them. 
Henry  III  gave  due  warning  that  unless  dAumale  immediately 
ceded  the  towns  in  question  to  the  new  Governor,  he  would  be 
regarded  as  a  rebel  and  his  head  would  be  forfeited  ;  he  himself 
would  go  and  arrest  him.  "  If  the  Kling  leaves  Paris,"  the  Duke 
of  Guise  insolently  replied,  "  I  will  make  him  think  of  returning 
before  he  has  advanced  a  day's  journey  towards  Picardy." 
The  conflict  was  on  the  verge  of  breaking  out.  The  King  of 
Spain,  who  was  keeping  a  watchful  eye  on  the  course  of  events, 
exhorted  Guise  to  break  off  all  relations  with  the  King  of  France, 
and  offered  him  300,000  crowns  and  a  force  of  6000  men. 

Henry  III  incunediately  summoned  a  body  of  4000  Swiss  to 
Paris.     The  Sixteen  invited  the  Duke  of  Guise,  who  was  at 

265 


CENTURY    OF   THE    RENAISSANCE 

Soissons,  to  come  and  join  them.  The  King  informed  the 
Duke  that  he  forbade  him  to  enter  the  city.  For  a  moment 
Guise  enters  Guise  hesitated  ;  then  he  sprang  upon  his  horse, 
Paris.  and  accompanied  only  by  eight  persons  hastened 

to  the  capital  as  fast  as  he  could  ride.  On  Monday,  May  9, 
1588,  he  entered  Paris  through  serried  ranks  of  people,  who 
greeted  him  with  enthusiastic  cheers,  and  so  dense  was  the 
crowd  that  he  could  scarcely  make  his  way  through  it.  They 
covered  him  with  flowers,  and  kissed  the  corner  of  his  cloak. 
*'  France,"  said  Balzac,  "  was  crazy  about  the  man  ;  to  say 
that  she  was  in  love  with  him  would  be  to  understate  the  case." 
Calm  and  cold,  bare-headed,  sitting  erect  upon  his  horse,  his 
face,  with  its  fair  curling  locks,  keen  eyes,  and  warlike  scar, 
sternly  set,  this  hero  of  eight-and-thirty,  the  most  popular 
personage  who  lived  under  the  old  regime,  had  the  grand  manner. 
As  Madame  de  Retz  said :  "  One  had  only  to  look  at  him  to 
become  a  Leaguer."  He  dismounted  at  his  house  in  the  Rue 
Saint -Antoine. 

It  was  Villeroy  who  came  to  announce  the  news  to  Henry 
III.  "  How  do  you  know  ? "  the  King  demanded,  beside 
himself  with  rage.  "  Has  he  actually  arrived  ?  'Sdeath,  he 
shall  die  for  it  !  "  and  in  his  fury  "  he  swore,  contrary  to  his 
habit."  Guise  went  to  see  Catherine  de'  Medici  in  her  own 
house — she  did  not  live  in  the  Louvre,  but  occupied  a  mansion 
built  for  her,  afterwards  known  as  the  Hotel  de  Soissons,  near 
the  Rue  Coquilli^re — and  begged  her  to  go  to  the  palace  with 
him.  The  old  Queen  got  into  her  litter  and  accompanied  the 
Duke  to  the  royal  abode.  As  they  entered  the  Louvre,  all  the 
King's  guards  were  standing  ready,  the  French  and  Swiss  lined 
Interview  ^P  ^^  either  side.     The  King's  reception  of  them 

between  was  icy,  and  he  curtly  asked  Guise  why  he  had 

Henry  III  come   in    spite    of    his    prohibition.     The    Duke 

and  Guise.  replied  that  he  wished  to  clear  himself  of  the 
calumnies  that  were  being  circulated  against  him  and  that, 
moreover,  he  had  not  supposed  the  King's  order  to  be  a  formal 
one.  Henry  III  made  an  exclamation  of  annoyance,  and  an 
altercation  would  have  taken  place  had  not  Catherine  de'  Medici 
interfered  to  prevent  it.  Whereupon  Guise,  on  the  pretext  that 
he  was  tired,  went  home,  followed  by  an  excited  crowd  which 
266 


THE    CATHOLIC    REACTION 

cheered  him  without  ceasing.  In  the  evening  the  Sixteen  held 
a  consultation  at  his  house  together  with  the  captains  of  the 
city  quarters  and  over  400  gentlemen.  At  the  Louvre  a  surprise 
was  feared,  or  at  all  events  some  commotion,  and  the  inmates 
passed  the  night  in  terror.  On  the  follomng  morning,  the  10th, 
Guise  returned  to  the  palace  escorted  by  a  numerous  retinue. 
He  was  admitted  to  the  King's  presence,  when  he  demanded 
the  dismissal  of  the  most  obnoxious  of  the  favourites,  the  Duke 
of  fipernon.  Henry  III  refused  and  then  spoke  himself.  He 
said  that  he  was  exasperated  at  the  encroachments  made  by 
the  League  upon  his  sovereign  power,  and,  consenting  to  enter 
into  further  details,  confessed  his  embarrassment  with  regard 
to  money,  and  pointed  out  the  inextricable  difficulties  of  his 
situation,  and  the  conflicting  interests  he  was  called  upon  to 
reconcile.  Guise  replied  with  a  few  vague  phrases  in  which 
the  words  help  and  succour  were  noted. 

Meanwhile  the  troops  summoned  by  the  King  had  reached 
Paris,  and  were  marching  through  the  streets.  They  con- 
centrated at  the  Louvre,  where  Henry  III  had  shut  himself  up. 
Swiss  and  French  guards  were  then  stationed  round  the  palace 
to  hold  the  approaches,  and  detachments  even  advanced  as 
far  as  the  Place  de  Greve  and  the  Cemetery  of  the  Holy  In- 
nocents. The  city  was  full  of  soldiers  and  the  bridges  were 
barred.  What  did  all  these  precautions  mean  ?  Paris  was 
filled  with  terror.  A  rumour  was  rife  that  Henry  III  was 
meditating  the  arrest  of  120  persons,  the  leaders  of  the  League, 
intending  to  put  them  to  death,  and  then  proceed  to  a  massacre 
of  the  Catholics  similar  to  the  Massacre  of  Saint  Bartholomew. 
Ten  thousand  Huguenots,  it  was  said,  were  arriving  in  the 
Faubourg  Saint-Germain  !  The  Swiss  drums,  beating  a  muster, 
gave  the  alarm.  The  shops  were  closed,  and  everybody  rushed 
out  into  the  streets,  filling  the  squares  and  public  places, 
The  day  of  the  where  the  crowds  held  eager  discussions.  At  the 
barricades.  corner  of  one  of  the  streets  some  people  conceived 
the  idea  of  stretching  chains  across  the  road,  planting  barrels 
filled  with  earth  and  paving-stones,  and  piling  up  beams  and 
furniture — barricading,  in  fact  !  This  gave  the  signal.  To 
the  cries  of  "  Long  live  the  Union  !  "  burghers,  workmen,  and 
magistrates    set   to    work   to   raise    similar   barricades    every- 

267 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

where,  in  order  to  prevent  the  royal  troops  from  advancing. 
Henry  III  commanded  Crillon  and  d'O  to  push  forward  on 
one  side  as  far  as  the  Place  Maubert  and  on  the  other  to  the 
Rue  Saint-Antoine  in  order  to  secure  an  outlet.  But  it  was  too 
late.  Neither  Crillon  nor  d'O  was  able  to  force  a  passage. 
The  tocsin  was  ringing  and  the  roar  of  the  growing  tumult  filled 
the  streets.  In  the  Marche  Saint-Innocent,  where  a  body  of 
900  Swiss  was  stationed,  the  sound  of  shots  was  heard.  The 
people  had  fired  on  them  and  twenty  men  fell.  The  rest  laid 
down  their  arms.  In  the  Rue  Neuve  Notre-Dame,  near  Saint 
Denis  de  la  Chatre,  in  the  Cite,  when  some  other  Swiss  fired 
one  or  two  shots,  a  fusillade  was  immediately  opened  upon 
them  to  shouts  of  "  KjII  them  !  Kill  them  !  "  From  the  win- 
dows women  hurled  projectiles  and  struck  down  the  soldiers, 
screaming  at  the  tops  of  their  voices,  "  France,  France  !  We 
are  Christians  !  "  Some  fifty  or  sixty  victims  fell.  Many  of 
the  French  guards  laid  down  their  arms.  In  the  Louvre  Biron 
declared  that  nothing  could  be  done  unless  they  were  prepared 
to  besiege  every  street,  which  was  impracticable.  He  was 
accordingly  dispatched  together  with  d'Aumont  to  try  to  hold 
a  parley,  but  at  the  first  barricade  they  were  received  with  a 
volley  and  were  obliged  to  retreat.  About  four  o'clock  in  the 
evening  Guise  rode  out  on  horseback,  recommending  the  people 
everywhere  to  keep  calm,  telling  them  to  stand  firm,  but  not 
to  move.  He  sent  back  to  the  Louvre  the  royal  troops  who 
had  laid  down  their  arms.  According  to  Nicolas  Poullain's 
Diary,  the  people  replied  that  the  King  must  be  killed  or  at  all 
events  captured,  and  that  his  Government  must  be  changed 
and  he  himself  reduced  to  impotence. 

The  demoralization  of  the  Louvre  was  complete.  The 
terrified  princesses  were  in  tears.  Catherine  de'  Medici  had 
Demoralization  herself  taken  by  night  through  side  streets  to 
of  the  the   Hotel    de   Guise,    and   there    demanded   an 

Louvre.  explanation  from  the  Duke,  asking  him  what  he 

wanted  and  what  he  demanded.  Guise  replied  that  he  wished 
to  be  appointed  Lieutenant-General  of  the  kingdom,  and 
stipulated  that  the  chief  provincial  Governorships  should  be 
reserved  for  members  of  the  League,  that  suspicious  characters 
should  be  dismissed,  that  Huguenot  princes  should  be  excluded 
268 


THE    CATHOLIC    REACTION 

from  the  succession  to  the  throne,  and  that  the  States-General 
should  be  summoned.  Catherine  returned  without  having 
made  any  promises.  On  the  following  night  all  remained  on 
the  watch  and  the  next  day  Catherine  sent  to  the  Duke  of  Guise, 
proposing  that  he  should  come  to  the  Louvre  and  discuss  matters 
with  the  King.  But  the  Duke  refused,  on  the  grounds  that  he 
could  not  thus  deliver  himself  up  into  the  hands  of  his  enemies. 
Thereupon  violent  incidents  broke  out  in  the  streets.  Students 
rushed  down  in  a  shouting  disorderly  throng  from  the  Montagne 
Sainte- Genevieve  and  tried  to  make  their  way  to  the  Louvre. 
The  tumult  was  increasing  and  preparations  were  on  foot 
indicating  that  a  violent  effort  was  about  to  be  made  to  attack 
the  royal  troops  and  force  the  King's  residence.  The  danger 
was  indeed  pressing.  It  is  true  that  the  King  might  have 
escaped  through  the  Tuileries,  which  at  that  time  was  outside 
Paris,  for  the  town  walls  only  reached  to  the  middle  of  the 
gallery  on  the  river-bank,  where  there  was  a  gate  opening  on 
to  the  Seine,  called  the  Porte  Neuve.  This  gate  was  still  free. 
The  Provost  of  the  merchants  and  aldermen  of  Paris  informed 
Henry  III  that  the  situation  was  becoming  more  alarming  every 
moment.  There  was  only  one  remedy :  the  withdrawal  of  the 
troops  whose  presence  had  provoked  the  outbreak.  Henry  III 
replied  that  he  would  not  withdraw  his  troops  unless  the 
barricades  were  removed.  The  insurgents  retorted  that  they 
would  only  remove  the  barricades  when  the  troops  had  departed. 
An  agreement  seemed  impossible.  At  this  juncture — four 
o'clock  in  the  evening — a  messenger  arrived  to  warn  the  King 
that  a  strong  detachment  of  Parisians  was  skirting  the  walls 
outside  the  town,  coming  round  the  Tuileries,  and  making  for 
Flight  of  the  Porte  Neuve  with  a  view  to  seizing  it.     Henry 

Henry  III.  Ill  was  about  to  be  blockaded.     There  was  no 

time  to  be  lost.  He  went  down  to  the  garden  as  if  he  were  going 
for  a  stroll,  reached  the  Tuileries  where  the  stables  were  situated, 
changed  his  clothes  quickly,  and  springing  on  horseback  ac- 
companied by  a  very  small  escort — the  Parisians  had  not  yet 
secured  all  the  outlets  from  the  city — galloped  away  in  the 
direction  of  Saint-Cloud.  The  Court  nobles  and  secretaries 
of  State  followed  shortly  afterwards,  though  they  had  to  make 
their  escape  through  occasional  volleys  aimed  at  them  along 

269 


CENTURY    OF   THE    RENAISSANCE 

the  banks  of  the  Seine.  The  Queens  remained  behind.  Once 
Henry  III  had  made  good  his  escape  the  troops  were  ordered 
to  fall  back,  after  which  the  French  guards  and  the  Swiss  left 
Paris  in  their  turn  to  rejoin  the  King.  Henry  III  slept  that 
night  at  Rambouillet  and  the  following  day  took  up  his  quarters 
at  Chartres.  In  1575  his  mother  had  written  to  him :  "  You 
would  rather  be  dead  than  a  fugitive  or  a  vanquished  man." 
He  was  now  both. 

Guise  remained  master  of  the  situation.  He  secured  the 
Bastille,  Vincennes,  and  the  Arsenal,  had  a  new  municipality 
Guise  master  elected  as  the  existing  one  was  not  sufficiently 
of  Paris.  subservient  to  him,  and  invited  Achille  de  Harlay, 

the  first  President  of  the  Parliament,  to  carry  on  the  regular 
administration  of  justice.  Harlay,  however,  answered  haughtily  : 
"  It  is  lamentable,  sir,  for  the  servant  to  drive  out  the  master  !  " 
He  deposed  the  Provost  of  Paris  and  nominated  a  fresh  one. 
The  Sixteen,  for  their  part,  on  their  own  initiative  removed 
from  their  benefices  clerics  suspected  of  liberalism,  and  filled 
their  places  with  other  men.  "  They  are  playing  the  King 
and  the  Pope,"  remarked  Henry  III,  shrugging  his  shoulders. 
Colonels,  captains,  and  quartermasters  of  the  city  militia  who 
were  considered  lukewarm,  were  also  superseded. 

The  news  of  the  events  which  were  taking  place  in  Paris 
was  received  in  the  provinces  with  mixed  feelings.  Between 
the  rabid  Catholics  and  the  Protestants,  a  moderate  party  con- 
sisting of  those  who  were  concerned  at  seeing  the  State  falling 
into  anarchy — a  party  of  reputable  and  reasonable  people, 
known  as  royalist  or  political  Catholics — increased  in  numbers. 
The  Day  of  the  Barricades,  as  it  was  called,  caused  as  much 
indignation  to  some  as  it  aroused  joy  in  the  breasts  of  others. 
Many  were  utterly  perplexed.  "  This  day,"  wrote  d'Aubigne, 
"  clove  in  two  the  kingdom,  the  court,  every  province,  every 
town,  every  family,  and  often  the  very  brain  of  an  individual 
man."  Many  protestations  of  fidelity  and  loyalty  reached  the 
King,  even,  nay  above  all,  from  Paris,  either  on  behalf  of 
individuals  or  organized  bodies.  This  unexpected  movement 
embarrassed  the  League.  They  began,  indeed,  to  wonder  what 
they  could  do  with  their  victory,  now  they  had  achieved  it ; 
to  what  decision  could  they  come  ?  Mechanically,  they  tried 
270 


THE    CATHOLIC    REACTION 

to  justify  themselves  to  the  King  at  Chartres — a  grave  con- 
cession !  Henry  III,  however,  was  even  more  embarrassed 
than  themselves.  Deeply  wounded  by  his  humiliation,  and 
a  prey  to  excessive  uneasiness,  he  found  it  impossible  to  sleep. 
What  was  he  to  do  ?  On  whom  or  on  what  could  he  rely  ? 
As  the  moderate  Catholics  were  not  yet  sufficiently  strong 
to  be  counted  upon,  he  found  himself  under  the  hard  necessity 
of  turning  to  the  League,  which  was  his  worst  foe.  This 
he  endeavoured  to  do  in  a  dignified  manner.  To  the  overtures 
Henry  III  made  him  by  the  Parisians,  he  repHed,  in  a  few 

treats  with  haughty  and  disdainful  words,  reproaching  them 
the  League.  with  their  ingratitude  and  their  forgetf ulness  of 
all  he  had  done  for  their  city,  in  which  he  had  resided 
longer  than  any  of  his  predecessors.  It  remained  to  settle 
the  conditions  of  an  agreement.  Henry  III  consented  to 
sacrifice  the  Duke  of  Epernon  ;  he  deprived  him  of  the 
Governorship  of  Normandy,  to  which  he  nominated  the  Duke 
of  Montpensier,  and  begged  the  favourite  to  retire  to  Provence. 
He  sanctioned  some  of  the  changes  that  had  been  made  in  Paris, 
and  promised  to  convoke  the  States-General  at  Blois.  With 
regard  to  the  Huguenots,  it  was  agreed  that  he  would  chastise 
them,  that  he  would  not  acknowledge  the  King  of  Navarre  as 
his  heir-presumptive,  and  that  he  would  support  the  candidature 
of  Cardinal  Bourbon.  He  gave  four  more  towns  as  guarantees 
to  the  League,  and  appointed  Henry  of  Guise  Generalissimo 
of  the  royal  forces.  The  treaty,  known  as  the  "  Edict  of  Union  " 
was  concluded,  and  Henry  III  endorsed  his  own  defeat.  Not 
realizing  the  absolute  impotence  of  the  King,  the  moderate 
Catholics,  indignant  at  his  weakness,  wrote  lampoons  against 
him.  "  Many  steps  lead  up  to  the  throne,"  they  said,  "  but 
none  lead  down.  You  should  not  allow  persons  to  receive  you, 
and  expect  you  to  go  to  them  ;  they  must  come  to  you,  and  you 
must  receive  them.  To  be  King  is  your  function.  The  man 
who  has  taken  upon  himself  to  make  you  a  fugitive  to-day, 
may  compass  your  death  to-morrow  ! "  Compass  his  death 
to-morrow  !  That  was  precisely  Henry  Ill's  private  opinion 
as  to  the  projects  of  the  Guises.  The  question  between 
him  and  his  new  Generalissimo,  who  was  already  King 
in  deed  though   not   yet  in  name,  was  which  of  the  two  was 

271 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

to  get  the  better  of  the  other.  The  drama  was  developing 
apace. 

The  results  of  the  elections  for  the  States-General  were 
entirely  favourable  to  the  League.  The  royalist  Catholics  were 
States-General  beaten  ;  the  Protestants  did  not  even  face  the 
of  Blois,  1588.  conflict.  The  Assembly  v/as  opened  at  Blois  in 
October,  1588,  by  a  procession  of  the  Order  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
and  the  King  took  his  seat  on  the  16th.  The  session  was  held 
as  usual  in  the  great  hall  of  the  ancient  counts,  in  the  presence 
of  the  princes  and  princesses,  the  Crown  officials,  and  the  nobles 
of  the  Court.  As  Grand  Master,  the  Duke  of  Guise  was  seated 
just  below  the  King,  facing  an  assembly  of  which  he  was,  in 
reality,  the  actual  chief.  The  King's  speech  was  lofty,  resolute, 
and  personal.  He  protested  that  he  intended  to  defend  the 
Catholic  faith  loyally,  that  he  was  ready  to  lend  a  willing  ear  to 
any  proposals  of  reform  the  States  might  make,  but  that  it  was 
impossible  for  him  to  tolerate  any  League  which  intrigued 
against  him,  and  by  raising  subsidies  and  troops,  made  an  attack 
upon  his  sovereign  power.  He  would  consent  to  grant  an 
amnesty  for  the  past,  provided  acts  of  this  sort  were  never 
repeated.  His  attitude  was  courageous  enough.  He  did  not 
mention  the  question  of  the  succession. 

The  debate  was  at  once  opened,  and  the  hostile  feeling  of 
the  assembly  became  evident  from  the  first  moment.  It  began 
by  demanding  the  exclusion  from  the  succession  of  the  King 
of  Navarre,  and  intimated  that  it  expected  vigorous  war  to 
be  made  upon  him.  The  question  of  finance  was  raised,  and 
the  budget  of  the  country's  receipts  and  expenditure  presented 
by  the  Government  excited  mistrust  and  was  regarded  as 
incorrect.  The  States  insisted  upon  the  suppression  of  certain 
offices,  the  abolition  of  taxes  that  had  been  recently  raised, 
and  the  reduction  of  the  taille  to  the  amount  at  which  it  had 
stood  in  the  time  of  Francis  I.  Henry  III  proposed  the  raising 
of  a  loan  for  war  expenses.  The  assembly  retorted  that  if 
they  sanctioned  this  loan  it  would  be  on  the  understanding 
that  they  superintended  the  spending  of  it.  They  became 
aggressive  and  waxed  bolder,  dismissing  thirty-five  financial 
officers — a  most  extraordinary  innovation.  They  passed  a 
resolution  to  the  effect  that  their  decisions  should  immediately 
272 


THE    CATHOLIC    REACTION 

have  the  force  of  law  without  further  confirmation — which 
amounted  to  revolution  ;  and  that  as  soon  as  the  assembly 
was  dissolved,  a  procurator  should  represent  them  and  superin- 
tend the  execution  of  their  wishes.  In  the  face  of  all  these 
measures,  what  was  to  become  of  the  traditional  absolute 
power  of  the  Crown  and  "  its  full  authority  "  ?  Henry  III 
was  exasperated.  It  was  an  open  secret  that  the  States  were 
entirely  under  the  control  of  a  committee,  which  prepared  the 
motions,  and  included  amongst  others  Henry  of  Guise,  his 
brother  Cardinal  Guise,  Cardinal  Bourbon,  and  d'fipinac,  Arch- 
bishop of  Lyons.  What  were  they  all — and  more  especially 
Guise — aiming  at  ?  Clearly  they  wished  to  begin  by  reducing 
the  reigning  monarch  to  a  cypher  in  order  to  set  him  aside  more 
easily  later  on.  As  Henry  HI  descended,  Guise  would  ascend. 
The  words  "  Guisards  "  and  "  Royalists  "  became  current 
terms  denoting  opposite  factions.  Further  extensions  of  power 
were  demanded  for  the  Duke,  and  there  was  even  some  talk 
of  having  him  made  Constable  by  a  decree  of  the  States  and  not 
by  the  King — yet  another  revolutionary  measure.  Guise, 
Murder  of  surrounded  by  the  States,  who  were  devoted  to 

Guise  pro-  him,  and  by  his  own  partisans,  was  practically 
jected.  master  at  Blois.     At  this  juncture,  the  problem 

in  all  its  terrifying  simplicity  presented  itself  to  the  agonized 
mind  of  the  King.  One  of  his  own  subjects,  nay  more,  a 
foreigner,  rising  up  against  his  lawful  sovereign,  had  made 
himself  all-powerful  in  the  State,  and  spurred  on  by  an  inordinate 
ambition,  was  endeavouring  to  overthrow  that  sovereign,  and 
usurp  his  throne.  As  King,  Henry  HI  found  himself  face  to 
face  with  a  rebel  guilty  of  high  treason  ;  as  a  man,  he  was 
confronted  by  the  murderer  who  wished  to  kill  him.  Once  the 
problem  had  been  defined,  the  solution  presented  itself  auto- 
matically— it  was  necessary  for  the  King  to  forestall  him  and 
take  action  himself.  The  idea  of  a  trial  hardly  entered  his 
thoughts.  "  I  might  have  appointed  judges  !  "  he  exclaimed 
later  in  answer  to  one  of  the  Presidents  of  Paris,  who  made  the 
suggestion.  "  Where,  pray,  was  I  to  find  them  ?  "  And, 
indeed,  almost  the  whole  of  France  was  on  the  side  of  the 
League.  Before  making  up  his  mind  to  strike  the  blow  Henry 
III    consulted    his    faithful    friends — d'Aumont,    Rambouillet, 

s  273 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

d'Angennes,  d'Ornano  and  Beauvais-Nangis.  With  hardly  a 
dissentient  voice  they  declared  he  must  not  hesitate.  The 
occasion  was  unique.  Guise  was  at  Blois,  in  the  King's  hands. 
It  would  be  easy  to  take  him  by  surprise.  They  recalled  his 
threatening  speeches  and  the  provocation  he  had  given.  It 
would  be  best  to  put  an  end  to  it  all.  A  step  taken  by  the 
Duke  himself  precipitated  the  catastrophe. 

On  Thursday,  December  22,  as  Henry  III  was  coming 
away  from  Mass,  he  was  followed  by  Guise,  who  demanded  an 
explanation  from  him.  The  Duke  declared  with  animation 
that  he  found  himself  the  object  of  a  growing  antipathy  on  the 
part  of  his  Majesty,  that  all  he  said  or  did  had  an  unfavourable 
construction  put  upon  it  by  the  King,  and  that  the  situation, 
under  these  circumstances  was  "  intolerable."  He  had  had 
enough  of  it  and  wished  to  leave  and  send  in  his  resignation 
of  the  post  of  Generalissimo.  Surprised  by  this  outburst,  the 
King  refused  to  accept  the  resignation.  A  stormy  discussion 
ensued  ;  Guise  reiterated  the  tale  of  his  grievances  and  renewed 
his  offer  to  retire.  Henry  III  persisted  in  refusing  it.  The 
interview  lasted  a  long  time,  causing  grave  anxiety  to  those 
who  were  following  it  at  a  distance  without  understanding  what 
was  going  on.  But  as  soon  as  he  got  home  the  King  felt  con- 
vinced that  Guise  "  only  wished  to  resign  his  office  because  the 
States  had  promised  to  make  him  Constable."  He  was  certain 
that  the  Duke  would  flee.  There  was  not  a  moment  to  be  lost. 
Henry  III  sent  for  Crillon,  who  was  in  command  of  the  regiment 
of  guards,  and  cross-questioned  him.  Crillon  replied  that  he 
was  quite  ready  to  kill  Guise  in  a  duel,  if  he  were  called  upon 
to  do  so,  but  not  otherwise.  Whereupon  Loignac,  the  leader 
of  the  forty-five  gentlemen,  assured  the  King  that  he  might 
count  upon  his  men  and  that  he  would  answer  for  them. 

Henry  III  made  his  preparations  with  extraordinary  cool- 
ness and  presence  of  mind.  In  the  evening,  after  supper,  he 
Preparations  ordered  his  coach  for  the  following  day  at  four 
for  the  o'clock,  as  if  he  meant  to  make  an  excursion, 

murder.  He  commanded  the  council  to  attend  a  meeting 

at  six  o'clock  in  the  morning,  and  sent  a  special  summons  to 
Guise,  his  brother  the  Cardinal,  and  the  Archbishop  of  Lyons. 
The  forty-five  were  to  be  at  the  castle  at  five  o'clock,  and 
274 


THE    CATHOLIC    REACTION 

Loignac  was  to  choose  out  ten  resolute  fellows  from  among 
them.  At  nine  o'clock  in  the  evening  Monsieur  de  Larchant, 
the  captain  of  the  guard,  was  ordered  to  station  himself 
with  his  men  at  seven  o'clock  in  the  morning  on  the  grand 
staircase,  and  to  prevent  anyone  from  ascending  or  descending 
the  stairs  after  the  Duke  of  Guise  had  passed.  He  was  also 
to  send  a  detachment  to  guard  the  stairs  which  led  from  the 
Galerie  des  Cerfs  to  the  King's  old  cabinet  in  the  court.  At 
midnight  Henry  HI  went  to  bed  in  the  Queen's  room,  after 
having  given  du  Halde,  his  valet,  instructions  to  call  him  at 
four  o'clock. 

At  four  o'clock  in  the  morning  du  Halde  accordingly  came 
and  knocked  at  the  door.  "  Who's  there  ?  "  demanded  Madame 
de  Piolant,  the  woman  of  the  bedchamber.  "It  is  du  Halde  ; 
tell  the  King  that  it  is  four  o'clock."  "  The  King  and  the 
Queen  are  both  asleep  !  " — "  Wake  him  up,  then.  He  told 
me  to  call  him."  Henry  HI  had  not  closed  his  eyes.  He 
jumped  to  the  foot  of  his  bed.  "  Piolant,"  he  called  "  here  ! 
my  boots,  my  gown,  and  my  candle."  And  he  went  out  into 
his  cabinet.  The  grand  staircase  at  Blois  leads  on  the  second 
storey  to  a  guard-room  on  the  left.  Crossing  this  to  come  to 
the  fayade,  which  now  overlooks  the  town,  but  formerly  faced 
the  garden,  we  find  on  the  right  the  Queen's  apartments,  which 
extend  as  far  as  the  great  hall  where  the  States-General  used 
to  meet ;  the  first  room  is  the  bed-chamber  ;  on  the  left,  three 
rooms  open  into  each  other — the  council-room,  the  largest  of 
the  three,  where  the  King  took  his  meals  ;  the  King's  bed- 
chamber or  state  room  ;  and  the  King's  cabinet.  Adjacent 
to  the  state  room,  but  looking  into  the  court,  was  the  King's 
old  cabinet,  le  cabinet  vieil.  The  King  found  du  Halde  and  de 
Termes  in  his  cabinet.  The  men  who  had  been  picked  out 
of  the  forty-five  arrived  one  by  one  in  the  state-room  and  as 
they  came  Henry  HI,  followed  by  de  Termes,  who  carried  the 
candle,  led  them  by  a  secret  stair  to  the  floor  above  and  shut 
them  up  in  little  rooms  which  were  supposed  to  have  been 
prepared  for  some  Capuchin  monks.  At  six  o'clock  the  members 
of  the  council  arrived  and  took  their  seats  in  the  council-chamber. 
The  King,  thereupon,  made  the  guardsmen  he  had  shut  up 
come  down  into  his  state-room,  telling  them  to  make  no  noise, 

275 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

in  order  not  to  awaken  the  Queen,  his  mother,  who  was  sleeping 
below.  As  soon  as  this  was  done  he  entered  the  council 
chamber.  Guise  had  not  yet  arrived.  Henry  III  proceeded 
to  make  a  speech  in  which  he  ennumerated  everything  the 
Duke  had  done  for  some  years  past  to  undermine  his  authority, 
the  insolence  of  that  "  ungrateful  and  disloyal  soul,"  and  his 
audacity  in  coming  to  Paris  on  the  eve  of  the  barricades,  in 
spite  of  having  been  commanded  not  to  do  so.  "  And  now," 
he  continued,  raising  his  voice,  "  in  his  unbridled  ambition  he 
is  on  the  eve  of  making  an  attempt  against  my  Crown  and  my 
life,  so  that  he  has  reduced  me  to  this  extremity,  that  either 
I  must  die  or  he  must  die  not  later  than  this  very  morning." 
He  had  made  up  his  mind  to  forestall  his  enemy,  and  he  asked 
the  members  of  the  council  for  their  consent.  Speechless 
with  surprise,  they  tamely  acquiesced.  Thereupon  Henry  III 
returned  to  his  state-room  and  collecting  those  of  the  forty-five 
who  were  there,  he  reminded  them  of  all  he  had  done  for  them, 
how  he  had  honoured  them  by  attaching  them  to  his  person, 
and  how  he  had  absolute  confidence  in  them.  Never  had  he 
refused  them  anything,  but  on  the  contrary,  had  loaded  them 
with  benefits.  And  now  it  was  his  turn  to  ask  them  a  favour. 
They  must,  of  course,  be  aware  of  the  violent  conduct  of  the 
Duke  of  Guise  towards  him — his  insolence  and  the  provocation 
he  had  given.  Matters  had  reached  such  a  climax  that  at  that 
very  moment  his  life  and  his  Crown  were  in  danger.  And  he 
repeated  the  phrase :  "  I  am  reduced  to  this  extremity,  that 
this  very  morning  either  he  must  die  or  I  must  die  !  "  Would 
they  consent  to  kill  the  Duke  ?  He  spoke  with  great  energy, 
and  with  one  voice  the  bullies  declared  that  they  were  ready. 
"Cap  de  Diou,  Sire,"  one  of  them,  named  Sariac,  exclaimed 
in  his  Gascon  dialect,  "  I'll  kill  him  for  you  !  "  The  band 
consisted  of  eight  men  armed  with  daggers  and  their  chief, 
Loignac,  who  had  a  sword.  They  were  hidden  in  the  old 
cabinet.  It  was  arranged  that  Guise  was  to  be  called  from 
the  council-chamber  to  the  old  cabinet  on  the  pretext  that 
the  King  wished  to  speak  to  him,  and  that  as  he  crossed  the 
state  room  he  was  to  be  executed.  When  all  was  ready 
Henry  III  retired  into  his  cabinet,  the  room  next  door,  and 
waited,  walking  up  and  down  in  feverish  agitation. 
876 


THE   CATHOLIC    REACTION 

Cardinal   Guise   and   the   Archbishop  of  Lyons  had  arrived 

at  the  council.     The  Duke  of  Guise,  who  had  spent  the  previous 

Murder  of  evening  in  agreeable  company,  had  not  gone  to 

Guise.  bed   till   nearly   three   o'clock   in   the    morning. 

Various  notes  had  been  delivered  to  him  bidding  him  beware. 

He   had  merely  shrugged   his   shoulders   exclaiming :    "  There 

would  be  no  end  to  it  if  I  paid  attention  to  every  warning.     He 

would  never  dare  !  "     At  eight  o'clock  he  awoke,  and  putting 

on  a  suit  of  grey  satin  came  to  the  council.     As  soon  as  he  had 

gone  upstairs  all  the  exits  were  guarded  in  accordance  with  the 

King's  instructions.     He  went  in,  saluted  the  council,  said  he 

felt  cold,  and  ordered  the  fire  to  be  heaped  up.     He  thereupon 

said  he  would  like  something  to  eat,  and  some  Brignoles  plums 

were  brought  to  him.     A  Master  of  Requests  was  making  a 

report  on  some  question  of  taxation.     Monsieur  de  Revol,  the 

usual  gentleman  in  attendance,  came  in  looking  rather  pale,  and 

whispered  in  the  Duke's  ear  that  the  King  wished  to  see  him 

in  his  old  cabinet.     Guise  rose,  slung  his  cloak  over  his  left 

arm,  and  putting  down  the  plums  on  the  table  asked :  "  Who 

would  like  some  ?  "     Then  picking  up  his  gloves  he  added, 

"  Farewell,  gentlemen  !  "  and  passed  through  the  state-room 

door  which  Nambu,  the  usher,  locked  behind  him.     The  nine 

men  who  had  been  chosen  from  the  forty-five  were  sitting 

round  the  room.     They  rose  as  if  in  deference  to  the  Duke. 

Guise  returned  their  salute,  and  went  towards  the  door  of  the 

old  cabinet.     He  was  stroking  his  beard  with  his  hand,  and  was 

only  a  couple  of  paces  from  the  curtain  over  the  doorway, 

when,  as  the  men  were  following  him,  he  turned  round  to 

see  what  they  wanted.     Whereupon  one  of  them,  Monsieur 

de  Montfery,  seized  him  by  the  arm  and  stabbed  him  violently 

in  the   breast.     "Ah!"   exclaimed  the   Duke,   as   he  sprang 

back  hastily.     But   another  man   had   already   flung  himself 

upon  him,  and  laid  tight  hold  of  his  legs  in  order  to  prevent 

him  from  moving,  whilst  all  the  rest  rushed  forward  striking 

at   him.     There    was    a   horrible   scuffle.     In   the   room   next 

door,  the  counsellors,  hearing  Guise's  hoarse  cry,  had  sprung 

to  their  feet,  pale  to  the  lips,  guessing  what  was  taking  place. 

They  heard  the  tramp  of  feet  during  the  struggle,  and  the 
heartrending  appeals  of  the  Duke — "Ah!  .  .  .  What  treachery  ! 

277 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

...  Oh  !  my  God  !  .  .  .  Mercy  !  "  .  .  .  Then  followed  the 
dull  thud  of  a  heavy  fall.  Dragging  along  his  assassins, 
who  clung  to  him,  Guise  had  managed  to  stagger  across 
the  room,  and,  mortally  wounded,  panting,  and  covered 
with  blood,  had  sunk  down  beside  the  King's  bed.  "They 
are  killing  my  brother  !  "  exclaimed  Cardinal  Guise  hoarsely." 
'Sdeath,  sir,  don't  move,"  answered  Marshal  d'Aumont,  roughly, 
as  he  drew  his  sword,  "  the  King  will  deal  with  you."  Henry 
III,  informed  that  all  was  over,  raised  the  cvirtain  of  his  room 
and  with  face  convulsed,  gazed  upon  the  scene.  Guise  was  in 
his  death  agony.  They  searched  him  hurriedly  ;  he  died  in 
a  few  minutes.  An  Oriental  carpet  was  flung  over  his  body  ; 
two  great  pools  of  blood  stained  the  floor. 

The  Kjng  went  downstairs  to  announce  the  sinister  news 
to  his  mother,  who  was  ill  at  the  time.  "  What  have  you 
done  ?  "  exclaimed  Catherine  de'  Medici,  wringing  her  hands 
in  terror.  Then  after  a  moment's  silence  she  continued :  "  God 
grant  you  may  benefit  by  it !  "  Henry  III  answered  firmly : 
"  Now,  I  alone  am  King  !  "  He  was  wrong,  however.  He  was 
King  no  more  ! 

He  then  gave  orders  for  the  arrest  of  Cardinal  Guise,  the 
Archbishop  of  Lyons,  Elbeuf,  Nemours,  and  Joinville,  and 
Murder  o£  conamanded    Cardinal    Bourbon    to    be    strictly 

Cardinal  Guise,  guarded.  His  first  intention  had  been  merely 
to  imprison  Cardinal  Guise  ;  the  following  morning  he  changed 
his  mind  and  gave  orders  for  his  execution.  But  this  time  no 
one  could  be  found  to  carry  out  his  commands,  and  he  was 
obliged  to  fall  back  upon  three  soldiers,  who  were  prevailed 
upon  to  kill  the  Cardinal  with  their  halberds  in  a  gallery  whither 
he  was  summoned  for  the  purpose. 

The  news  of  the  tragedy  that  had  been  enacted  at  Blois 
reached  Paris  on  December  24,  Christmas  Eve,  between  three 
and  four  o'clock  in  the  evening.  It  produced  an  upheaval  in 
the  city,  and  the  streets  were  thronged  with  people  crying: 
"  Murder  I  Fire  !  Death  and  vengeance  !  "  The  council  of 
the  Union  met  at  once  in  the  Hotel  de  Ville,  appointed  the  Duke 
of  Aumale  Governor  of  Paris,  put  the  militia  under  arms,  seized 
the  gates,  and  deliberated  what  course  to  pursue.  After, a 
moment's  stupor  the  whole  of  France  was  filled  with  rage 
278 


THE    CATHOLIC    REACTION 

and  hatred.  No  !  Henry  III  was  no  longer  King,  the  people 
repeated,  he  was  merely  "  Henry  of  Valois,  sometime  King  of 
France."  He  was  nothing  but  "  a  murderer,  an  assassin,  a 
false  heretic  !  "  Violent  pamphlets  appeared,  and  the  name 
of  the  King  was  vilified,  insulted,  and  dragged  through  the  mud. 
No  King  of /France  was  ever  treated  as  Henry  III  was  treated 
at  this  moment.  His  authority  was  virtually  extinct.  He 
was  "  the  tyrant."  Sermons  in  the  pulpits,  couplets  at  the 
cross-roads,  lampoons  and  placards  poured  imprecations  on  his 
head  in  unanimous  chorus.  Morally  speaking,  Henry  III  was 
aheady  deposed.  He  received  anonymous  letters  announcing 
that  he  himself  would  very  shortly  be  executed  ;  he  felt  as  if 
his  kingdom  were  crumbling  to  pieces  around  him. 

Throughout  the  country  religious  ceremonies  were  held 
for  the  repose  of  the  souls  of  the  victims  of  Blois,  at  which 
funeral  sermons  were  preached  denouncing  the  murderer.  The 
Faculty  of  Theology  in  Paris  announced  at  the  Sor bonne  "  that 
as  the  tyrant  had  fallen  "  no  one  was  called  upon  to  obey  him. 
Parliament  was  suspected  of  harbouring  am.ong  its  magistrates 
certain  "  politicians,"  dangerous  and  sinister  people,  "  the 
enemies  of  the  Catholic  religion,"  amongst  others  the  First 
President  de  Harlay.  He  was  accordingly  sent  to  the  Bastille 
together  with  the  Presidents  Potier  and  de  Thou  and  a  number 
of  counsellors.  Brisson  was  nominated  First  President  and 
Mole  Procurator-General.  A  declaration  was  published  in 
which  the  League  announced  its  intention  of  defending  re- 
ligion, avenging  the  death  of  the  Guises  judicially,  and  protecting 
the  States-General.  And,  indeed,  a  judicial  commission  ap- 
pointed by  the  ParUament  opened  an  inquiry.  Some  of  its 
depositions  have  been  preserved.  A  herald  who  presented 
himself  on  behalf  of  Henry  III  was  soundly  thrashed,  and  public 
notice  was  given  that  the  League  refused  to  hold  any  com- 
munication whatsoever  with  "  Henry  of  Valois."  Paris  was 
in  a  state  of  insurrection.  The  Sixteen  wrote  to  all  the  towns 
in  the  kingdom  calling  on  them  to  judge  in  the  case.  Nearly 
all  pronounced  in  their  favour — Rouen,  Amiens,  Chartres, 
Rheims,  Troyes,  Angers,  Marseilles,  Le  Mans  and  Toulouse, 
In  Bordeaux,  Matignon  remained  loyal,  but  Perigueux  and  Agen 
declared   against   the   King.     Lyons   issued   its   manifesto   on 

279 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

February  24.  The  provincial  governors  in  their  turn  followed 
the  example  of  the  towns. 

Henry  III  was  beside  himself,  weeping  and  declaring  that 
"  he  would  think  himself  lucky  if  somebody  had  already  killed 
Despair  of  him."     Only    Blois,    Tours,    Saumur,   Bordeaux, 

Henry  III.  and  a  few  isolated  spots  remained  to  him.     He 

declared  the  States-General  dissolved,  and  in  order  to  explain 
his  conduct  dispatched  a  proclamation  throughout  the  country 
which  no  one  would  even  receive.  In  May  a  finishing  stroke 
in  the  form  of  a  Bull  from  Rome  arrived,  in  which  Sixtus  V 
declared  that  if  within  ten  days  "  Henry  of  Valois,"  as  he 
was  called  in  the  text,  did  not  release  Cardinal  Bourbon  and 
the  Archbishop  of  Lyons,  he  would  be  excommunicated ; 
it  summoned  him  to  Rome  to  stand  his  trial  for  the  blood 
of  Cardinal  Guise  criminally  shed  by  him.  This  was  the  coup- 
de-grdce.  The  whole  of  France  regarded  Henry  III  as  ex- 
communicated. 

The  Duke  of  Mayenne,  who  assumed  the  title  of  Lieutenant- 
General,  now  found  himself  at  the  head  of  the  League.  He 
convoked  the  States-General.  In  his  pitiable  state  of  distress 
Henry  III  declared  both  him  and  d'Aumale  to  be  felons  and 
called  to  his  aid  the  ban  and  rear-ban  of  the  kingdom — that 
nobility,  who  in  despair  at  the  events  which  had  taken  place, 
and  humiliated  by  the  demagogic  excesses  of  Paris,  at  heart 
still  felt  some  remnant  of  loyalty  for  him,  though  they  remained 
silent  and  perplexed.  In  spite  of  the  fact  that  he  had  no  money 
and  that  the  taxes  were  not  being  paid,  Henry  III  sent  Monsieur 
de  Sancy  to  Switzerland  to  raise  recruits  for  him.  But,  in  the 
midst  of  the  universal  hatred  against  him,  whither  was  he  him- 
self to  turn  ?  Would  it  be  possible  for  him  to  hold  out  for 
long  at  Blois  ?  At  this  juncture  his  friend  of  old  days  upon 
whom  he  had  once  heaped  so  many  favours,  d']£pernon, 
hastened  to  him,  and  reviving  the  idea  which  he  had  always  up- 
held and  which  had  been  the  cause  of  his  disgrace,  begged 
Henry  III  to  throw  in  his  fortunes  with  those  of  his  heir,  the 
King  of  Navarre.  At  this  opportune  moment,  March  4,  Henry 
of  Navarre  published  a  declaration  noble  and  lofty  in  tone, 
in  which  he  generously  held  out  his  hand  to  the  fallen  monarch. 
"  Misery,  confusion,  and  want  everywhere,"  he  said,  "  such 
280 


THE   CATHOLIC   REACTION 

are  the  fruits  of  war.  I  ask  for  peace  in  the  name  of  us 
all  from  my  Lord,  the  King.  I  ask  it  for  myself  and  for 
every  Frenchman^ — for  France  herself  !"  He  begged  the  King 
to  pardon  and  to  welcome  those  who  might  come  and  ofTer 
him  their  allegiance.  It  was  impossible  to  hesitate  any  longer, 
and  du  Plessis-Mornay  and  Sully  secretly  came  to  Tours, 
where  Henry  III  was  staying,  to  hold  a  consultation  with  him. 
Henry  III.  '^^^   coalition   was   decided   upon   and   a   treaty 

combines  with  signed  defining  the  conditions.  But  hereupon 
Henry  of  the  whole  kingdom  exclaimed  that  "  at  last  the 

Beam.  lying  features   of  the   arch-hypocrite   of   France 

have  been  unveiled  !  "  The  "  tyrant  "  had  put  the  coping- 
stone  to  his  "  treacheries,  perfidies,  sacrilege,  exactions,  cruelties, 
and  deeds  of  shame  ;  "  he  had  cast  aside  the  mask  and  had 
openly  declared  himself  the  defender  of  heresy. 

The  meeting  between  the  two  Kings  took  place  on  April 
30,  1589,  in  the  park  of  Plessis-les-Tours.  Henry  of  Navarre, 
that  needy  hero,  arrived  clad  in  a  "  doublet  worn  on  the 
shoulders  and  sides  by  the  rubbing  of  his  cuirass,  velvet  breeches 
the  colour  of  dead  leaves,  a  scarlet  cloak  and  a  grey  hat  with 
a  large  white  plume — the  costume  of  a  soldier  on  campaign." 
The  throng  of  people  was  so  great  that  the  two  sovereigns  had 
some  difficulty  in  coming  together.  With  deep  emotion  they 
embraced  each  other,  and  Henry  of  Navarre  even  wept.  He  had 
been  warned  against  taking  so  dangerous  a  step,  considering 
the  character  of  the  man  with  whom  he  had  to  deal.  But  he 
remained  true  to  his  purpose.  "  The  ice  has  been  broken," 
he  wrote  that  evening  to  du  Plessis-Mornay,  "  I  have  crossed 
the  water  after  commending  myself  to  God." 

Under  a  leader  so  distinguished  as  Henry  of  Beam  the 
conditions  of  the  conflict  assumed  a  very  different  aspect.  A 
March  on  man  of  clear  and  resolute  judgment,  the  King 

Paris.  of  Navarre  decided  that  all  the  troops  that  were 

ready  to  hand  should  be  collected  at  once  to  march  straight 
on  Paris.  The  nobility,  who,  in  spite  of  everything,  had  a 
certain  sympathy  for  him  on  account  of  his  brilliant  qualities, 
and  who  now  saw  him  at  the  side  of  the  lawful  King,  gathered 
round  him.  The  Protestant  forces  had  rallied  ;  the  march  was 
begun  and  vigorously  led  by  Henry  of  Navarre.     They  won  a 

281 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

few  successes  in  small  skirmishes  and  met  with  no  serious 
opposition.  On  July  24  Pontoise  was  taken.  On  the  25th 
Sancy  joined  them,  bringing  a  reinforcement  of  16,000  men 
which  he  had  succeeded  in  raising  in  Germany  and  Switzerland. 
The  royal  army  almost  reached  the  imposing  number  of  42,000 
men.  On  the  29th  the  bridge  of  Saint-Cloud  was  occupied  and 
the  troops  extended  from  this  point  to  Vaugirard.  Hope  began 
to  revive.  Noting  the  energetic  measures  of  the  two  Kings, 
the  people  of  Paris  became  anxious  and  hesitated  ;  the  mode- 
rates held  deliberations.  On  the  30th,  Mayenne  had  300 
persons  arrested  in  the  hope  of  suppressing  the  threatened 
reaction.  But  entrenchments  had  been  begun ;  the  work 
advanced  apace.  Henry  of  Beam  had  decided  to  attempt 
an  assault  on  August  2,  and  his  success  seemed  certain. 
Mayenne,  in  despair,  had  already  determined  to  make  a 
sortie  from  the  town,  and,  rather  than  allow  himself  to  be  sur- 
rounded and  taken,  to  hurl  himself  upon  the  royal  army  in 
the  open  country,  when  on  the  morning  of  August  1,  a  piece 
of  news  was  suddenly  spread  abroad  which  put  an  end  to  the 
hopes  of  some  and  the  fears  of  others :  Henry  III  had  been 
assassinated  ! 

In  the  midst  of  the  passions  that  had  been  let  loose  and  the 
seething  of  an  infuriated  mob,  one  individual  of  distorted 
Plan  to  intelligence  had  taken  the  curses  hurled  against 

murder  the  tyrant  King,, the  destroyer  of  religion,  literally, 

Henry  III.  and,   choosing  as  his  example  similar  instances 

described  in  the  Old  Testament,  had  thought  he  would  ac- 
complish a  noble  deed  in  ridding  "the  Church  of  God  "  of  the 
"  monster  "  who  wished  to  ruin  her.  He  was  a  Dominican 
monk,  or,  as  he  was  called,  a  Jacobin,  of  twenty-eight.  The 
idea  had  taken  firm  hold  of  his  mind,  and  he  believed  himself 
to  be  a  Jehu,  or  a  Judith,  a  weapon  designed  by  Providence 
for  the  salvation  of  his  people.  Deterred  by  one  last  scruple 
he  had  consulted  doctors  of  theology  with  the  object  of  ascer- 
taining— the  question,  he  said,  had  been  put  to  him  theoretically, 
by  a  third  party — whether  one  might  without  sin,  assassinate 
Henry  of  Valois,  and  whether  if  the  King's  murderer  were 
killed  upon  the  spot,  he  would  go  to  heaven.  The  doctors  had 
replied  that,  theologically  speaking,  if  the  murderer  had  in 
282 


THE   CATHOLIC   REACTION 

view  any  personal  interest  or  the  satisfaction  of  a  desire  for 
revenge,  he  would  be  guilty  of  a  grave  sin,  but  that  if  he  acted 
for  the  public  good  and  the  interests  of  religion,  his  deed  would 
be  a  meritorious  one,  "  and  that  there  was  no  doubt  that  if 
he  died  after  having  carried  it  out  he  would  be  saved  and  win 
eternal  bliss."  Clement,  accordingly,  made  his  preparations  ; 
he  fasted,  prayed,  and  received  the  Sacrament.  The  announce- 
ment that  an  assault  was  to  be  made  decided  him.  After 
some  difficulty  he  obtained  a  letter  of  introduction  to  the 
immediate  circle  of  Henry  III  from  a  royalist  prisoner  confined 
in  Paris,  the  Count  of  Brienne.  The  King  was  staying  at  Saint- 
Cloud  in  the  house  of  Monsieur  de  Gondi,  called  "  the  red 
house,"  which  was  situated  on  the  hill  a  little  above  the  town, 
on  the  left  in  the  direction  of  Meudon.  Clement  presented 
himself  at  the  outposts,  and  was  taken  to  Monsieur  la  Guesle, 
Procurator -General  of  the  Parliament,  who  was  close  at  hand. 
He  asked  La  Guesle  to  present  him  to  the  King  on  the  pretext 
that  he  wished  to  tell  his  Majesty  of  a  certain  plot  that  was 
being  hatched  in  Paris  for  delivering  one  of  the  gates  of  the 
city  into  his  hands.  La  Guesle  cross-questioned  the  monk, 
and,  thinking  that  his  story  might,  after  all,  be  true,  promised 
to  conduct  him  to  the  King  on  the  following  morning. 

The  next  day,  August  1,  Clement  went  to  the  "  red  house." 
Here  he  waited  an  hour  ;  the  King  was  getting  up.  Henry's 
Murder  of  retinue  did  not  wish  him  to  receive  an  unknown 

Henry  111,1589,  man  m  this  way,  but  he  replied  that  it  would 
produce  a  very  bad  impression  if  he  refused  an  audience  to  a 
priest  and  a  monk.  At  eight  o'clock  the  Dominican  was  shown 
into  his  presence.  In  his  loose  white  sleeve  he  carried  a  little 
common  knife.  The  King  had  on  only  his  breeches  and  a 
dressing-gown  over  his  shoulders.  Clement  bowed  before  him 
and  presented  his  letter  ;  as  the  King  perused  it,  he  pretended 
to  be  seeking  for  another  paper  in  his  sleeve  ;  and  drawing 
out  the  knife  with  a  swift,  violent  movement  he  plunged  it 
into  the  King's  belly.  Henry  III  had  guessed  his  intention, 
and  bent  forward  quickly  to  parry  the  blow.  But  it  was  too 
late.  "  Ah  !  the  wretch,  he  has  killed  me  !  "  he  exclaimed. 
"  Kill  him !  "  The  suite  rushed  at  Clement,  and  hustled 
him  into  a  corner  of  the  room  where  he  fell  dead,  riddled  with 

283 


CENTURY    OF   THE    RENAISSANCE 

sword-thrusts.  After  bleeding  copiously  Henry  III  was  carried 
to  bed,  where  his  wound  was  dressed.  He  did  not  suffer 
much.  The  physicians  told  him  that  it  would  be  nothing  ; 
but  Portail,  the  head  surgeon,  in  probing  the  wound  had 
discovered  that  the  intestine  was  pierced  and  knew  that  there 
was  no  hope  for  the  King.  In  the  evening  the  wound 
became  inflamed,  and  fever  accompanied  by  violent  pains  set 
in.  Henry  III  knew  that  all  was  over.  But  he  was  calm  and 
resigned.  He  embraced  the  King  of  Navarre  and  said  :  "I  am 
dying  happy  in  the  knowledge  that  you  are  by  my  side.  The 
Crown  is  yours.  I  command  all  the  officers  to  recognize  you 
as  King  after  me."  Henry  of  Navarre  kissed  the  hand  of  the 
dying  man,  his  eyes  full  of  tears.  The  spectators,  on  their 
knees,  promised  to  do  their  sovereign's  bidding,  and  turning 
to  Henry  of  Beam  the  King  added :  "  You  will  have  many 
troubles  unless  you  make  up  your  mind  to  change  your  religion. 
I  exhort  you  to  do  this  !  "  At  midnight  he  became  unconscious, 
and  at  three  o'clock  in  the  morning  he  was  dead. 

Catherine  de'  Medici  had  preceded  him  to  the  grave. 
Shocked  beyond  measure  by  the  execution  of  the  Guises  at 
Death  of  Blois,    she    had   afterwards    had    a    scene    with 

Catherine  de'  Cardinal  Bourbon.  He  had  reproached  her  with 
Medici,  1589.  the  events  that  had  taken  place,  and  had  ex- 
claimed :  "  Ah  !  Madam,  this  is  your  doing.  It  is  you  who  are 
killing  us  all  !  "  She  had  protested  vehemently,  saying  that 
she  had  had  nothing  whatever  to  do  with  the  matter  ;  and  then 
she  added  :  "  I  can  bear  no  more.  I  must  go  to  bed."  She  never 
left  it  again.  She  died  of  pneumonia  on  January  5,  1589,  at 
the  age  of  seventy.  The  public,  absorbed  in  other  matters, 
was  quite  indifferent  to  her  death.  "  They  paid  no  more  heed 
to  it  than  they  would  have  done  to  the  death  of  a  goat,"  and 
the  Parisians  declared  that  if  her  body  were  brought  to  Saint- 
Denis  they  would  throw  it  out  into  the  gutter.  Of  the  numerous 
and  brilliant  family  of  Henry  III  no  single  prince  remained, 
and  the  Crown  reverted  to  a  heretic  whom  the  majority  of 
Frenchmen  repudiated. 

Sources.  Same  as  for  two  preceding  chapters,  and  :  Mdmoires  du 
due  de  Nevers,  ed.  Gomberville,  1665  ;  Mimoires  d'&tat  de  Villeroy,  1665  ; 
Memoires  de  la  Ligue,  1758  ;   Combes,  Lettres  inidites  de  Henri  de  Guise, 

284 


THE    CATHOLIC    REACTION 

de  Catherine  de  Medicis  et  de  Henri  de  Navarre,  1879  ;  Henri  IV,  Lettres 
missives,  ed.  Berger  de  Xivrey,  1843  ;  Sully,  Economies  royales,  ed.  Michaud 
and  Poujoulat ;  du  Plessis-Mornay,  Mimoires  et  correspondence,  1824  ; 
Pierre  de  I'Estoile,  Memoires-Journaux,  ed.  G.  Brunet,  1875  ;  Lettres  de 
Bushecq,  amhassadeur  de  Vempercur,  in  Cimber  and  Danjou,  Archives 
curieuses,  vol.  x  ;  H.  Davila,  Histoire  des  guerres  civiles  de  France,  ed. 
Mallet,  1757  ;  Loutchizky,  Documents  incdits  sur  la  Reforme  et  la  Ligue, 
1875  ;  Dubois,  La  Ligue,  documents  relatifs  a  la  Picardie,  1859  ;  Docu- 
ments historiques  sur  Vassassinat  dcs  due  et  cardinal  de  Guise,  in  Revue 
retrospective,  vol.  iii  and  iv,  1834  ;  Nicolas  Poullain,  Journal,  in  Cimber 
and  Danjou,  Archives  curieuses,  vol.  xi  ;  Diegerick  and  Miiller,  Documents 
concemani  les  relations  entre  le  due  d''Anjou  et  les  Pays-Bas,  1889. 

Works.  Same  as  for  the  preceding  chapter,  and  :  Marquis  de  Noailles, 
Henri  de  Valois  et  la  Pologne  en  1572,  1867  ;  M.  W.  Freer,  Henry  III, 
King  of  France,  his  Court  and  Times,  1858  ;  E.  Fremy,  Henri  III  penitent, 
1885  ;  Comte  de  Baillon,  Histoire  de  Louise  de  Lorraine,  1884  ;  E.  Charle- 
ville,  Les  Stats  gendraux  de  1576,  1901  ;  V.  de  Chalambert,  Histoire  de  la 
Ligue,  1854  ;  H.  de  I'fipinois,  La  Ligue  et  les  papes,  1886  ;  F.  Decrue, 
Le  parti  des  politiques  au  lendemain  de  la  Saint-Barthelemy,  1892  ;  Robiquet, 
Paris  et  la  Ligue,  1886  ;  B.  Zeller,  Le  mouvement  guisurd  en  1588,  1889  ; 
A.  Gerard,  La  rivolte  et  le  siege  de  Paris  (in  Mem.  de  la  Soc.  de  Vhist.  de 
Paris,  1906)  ;  Baguenault  de  Puchesse,  Les  n^gociations  de  Catherine  de 
Medicis  d  Paris  apres  la  journee  des  barricades,  1903  ;  Richard,  Pierre 
d'EpinaCf  archeveque  de  Lyon,  1901. 


285 


CHAPTER  VIII 

INTERNAL  PEACE.    HENRY  IV 

Henry  IV's  difficulties  (1589-1610)  in  obtaining  recognition  of 
his  title  to  the  throne.  The  siege  of  Paris  raised.  Battle  of  Arques, 
1589  ;  fresh  march  against  Paris  and  failure  to  capture  the  city. 
Battle  of  Ivry,  1590.  Renewed  unsuccessful  siege  of  Paris. 
Henry  IV  seizes  Chartres.  Violence  of  the  demagogic  faction  of 
the  Sixteen  in  Paris  :  execution  of  President  Brisson,  1591. 
Attempts  at  negotiation  with  Henry  IV  :  Mayenne  convokes  the 
States-General,  1593.  Philip  II's  attempts  to  have  his  daughter 
nominated  Queen  of  France.  Conference  with  Henry  IV  at 
Suresnes.  Recantation  of  Henry  IV,  1593.  His  coronation  at 
Chartres,  1594.  AU  parties  enter  into  negotiations  with  him. 
Smrender  of  Paris,  1594.  The  end  of  the  League.  Henry  IV  drives 
out  the  Spaniards  :  Battle  of  Fontaine-Frangaise,  1595.  Peace  of 
Vervins,  1598.  The  end  of  war  :  Henry  IV  sets  his  kingdom  in 
order  ;  Sully ;  the  finances  ;  Assembly  of  Notables  at  Rouen,  1596  ; 
agriculture,  commerce,  public  works,  colonization.  Religious 
peace  and  the  Edict  of  Nantes,  1598.  Annulment  of  Henry  IV's 
first  marriage  and  his  alliance  with  Marie  de'  Medici,  1600.  The 
case  of  Marshal  de  Biron,  1602.  Scant  popularity  of  Henry  IV 
during  his  lifetime.    His  assassination,  1610. 

THERE  was  a  moment  of  singular  confusion  in  Monsieur 
de  Condi's  "  red  house  "  at  Saint-Cloud  on  the  morning 
of  August  1, 1589,  when  the  death  of  Henry  III  left  the 
nation  to  face  the  inevitable  fact  that  France  had  a  new  King  and 
Henry  IV.,  that  this  King  was  a  Protestant.  The  prevailing 
1589-1610.  sentiment  in  the  monarch's  immediate  circle, 
which  was  chiefly  composed  of  Catholics,  was  that  of  rage. 
"  With  cries  and  yells,"  said  d'Aubinge,  "  they  pulled  down 
their  hats  over  their  eyes  or  flung  them  to  the  ground,  clenched 
their  fists,  and  with  the  airs  of  conspirators,  shook  each  other 
by  the  hand,  and  made  vows  and  promises,  the  conclusion  of 
which  was :  rather  would  we  die  a  thousand  deaths  !  "  They 
hardly  knew  Henry  IV.  D'O,  d'Entraigues,  and  Chateauvieux 
286 


INTERNAL  PEACE.  HENRY  IV 

kept  repeating  that  there  was  no  one  they  would  not  have 
preferred  as  master.  On  the  night  of  the  2nd,  the  chief 
Catholics  of  the  Court  met  together  to  consider  the  situation. 
A  few  of  them,  such  as  the  Duke  of  Longueville,  Baron  de  Givry, 
and  Monsieur  de  Rambouillet,  were  of  opinion  that  as  the 
siege  was  in  progress,  it  was  necessary  to  recognize  the  King 
of  Navarre,  and  push  on  the  attack  upon  Paris  with  the  object 
of  avenging  Henry  III.  The  majority,  however,  were  against 
this,  saying  that  it  was  impossible  to  take  as  their  King  a  man 
who  was  excommunicated.  Henry  of  Beam  would  never  be 
converted  ;  his  vacillation  in  the  past  had  conclusively  proved 
this.  Finally,  at  the  instigation  of  d'fipernon,  it  was  decided 
that  a  deputation  should  be  sent  to  explain  to  Henry  IV,  that 
if  he  would  immediately  abjure  the  Protestant  faith,  he  should 
be  proclaimed  without  further  delay. 

The  new  King  of  France  was  a  man  of  five-and-thirty,  of 
medium  height,  wiry,  vigorous,  and  nervous,  the  most  in- 
Character  of  telligent  of  all  the  French  Kings,  endowed  with 
Henry  IV.  one  of  those  lively  and  supple  intellects  which 

see  all  the  shades  of  a  question  and  make  prompt  decisions. 
In  addition,  he  was  witty,  charming,  simple  in  manners  and 
bearing,  and  an  excellent  soldier.  He  possessed  too  lofty  a 
conception  of  his  own  personal  dignity  and  that  of  his  position 
to  accept  the  terms  offered  him,  though  he  was  fully  conscious 
of  his  precarious  situation.  The  army  by  which  he  was  sur- 
rounded contained  barely  2000  Huguenots,  encamped  apart 
at  Meudon,  the  butt  of  the  rest  of  the  troopb%  who  mockingly 
dubbed  them  "  the  highwaymen."  At  the  very  first  moment 
he  had  despatched  Biron  to  administer  the  oath  of  allegiance 
to  the  Swiss,  foreigners,  mercenaries,  and  Protestants,  who 
would  obey  him.  But  outside  these  groups  he  had  no  supporters. 
A  few  Catholics  might  follow  him  ;  the  rest  might  go  ;  he  would 
remain  a  King  without  a  country,  and  a  general  without  an 
army.  He  was  a  proud  man,  and  held  his  ground  firmly 
against  the  deputation  which  came  to  bid  him  be  converted. 
He  answered  with  vehement  emotion  that  they  were  holding 
a  knife  at  his  throat  and  demanding  from  him  an  action  that 
would  dishonour  him.  He  promised  to  give  the  CathoUcs 
every  possible  guarantee  and  was  ready  to  receive  instruction 

287 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

by  means  of  a  national  council.  Let  those  who  did  not  wish 
to  stay  take  their  departure.  "  My  supporters  among  the 
Catholics,"  he  said  nobly  at  the  end  of  his  speech,  "  will  be  those 
who  love  France  and  who  love  honour  !  " 

This  determined  attitude  disconcerted  the  Catholic  leaders, 
and  they  held  another  meeting.  What  were  they  to  do  ? 
Provisional  Whom  could  they  take  as  King  ?  The  prince's 
recognition  scruples  were  certainly  worthy  of  respect.  Some 
of  Henry  IV.  one,  thereupon,  proposed  that  Henry  IV  should 
be  provisionally  recognized,  and  given  six  months  in  which 
to  be  converted  ;  a  resolution  to  this  effect  was  carried.  Henry 
IV  accepted  the  terms.  An  agreement  was  signed  on  August 
4,  by  which  it  was  arranged  that  the  King  should  be  instructed, 
that  during  the  course  of  the  six  months  he  should  summon  a 
national  council,  and  that  in  the  meanwhile  no  alteration  should 
be  made  in  the  position  of  the  Catholics  and  the  Huguenots 
respectively.  But  was  this  really  a  solution  ?  Unfortunately, 
a  number  of  stubborn  Catholics  refused  to  accept  the  com- 
promise. They  collected  their  baggage  and  left  the  army,  one 
man  taking  his  departure  with  the  whole  contingent  under 
his  command — a  body  of  7000  men.  And,  on  the  other  hand, 
the  Protestants,  discouraged  by  the  promises  Henry  IV  had 
just  made,  also  retired.  La  Tremoille  broke  up  his  camp  and 
left  with  nine  battalions.  The  royal  army  was  thus  thoroughly 
disorganized,  and  Henry  IV,  who,  to  add  to  his  misfortunes, 
had  no  money,  finding  it  impossible  to  carry  on  the  siege, 
retreated  from  the  banks  of  the  Seine  and  fell  back  in  the 
direction  of  Normandy. 

The  country  received  the  agreement  of  Saint-Cloud  with 
mixed  feelings.  A  minority  accepted  it,  but  the  mass  of  the 
people  remained  undecided,  uncertain,  and  troubled,  not  willing 
to  go  as  far  as  the  League,  and  yet  refusing  to  submit  to  a  heretic 
King.  The  League  regained  confidence.  It  was  no  longer  a 
question  of  defending  themselves  against  the  possible  accession 
of  a  Reformer  ;  the  heretic  was  actually  King.  "  A  second 
rebellion,"  said  Palma  Cayet,  "almost  took  place."  Mayenne, 
realizing  that  he  could  not  himself  lay  claim  to  the  Crown, 
made  up  his  mind  to  abide  by  the  decision  of;  the  States-General 
at  Blois,  and  to  proclaim  Cardinal  Bourbon  King  with  the  title 
288 


INTERNAL  PEACE.   HENRY  IV 

of  Charles  X.  Cardinal  Bourbon  was  shut  up  in  the  Chateau 
Cardinal  ^^  Loches.     He  let  Mayenne  proceed  and  wrote 

Bourbon  pro-  to  Vergn^tes  :  "  I  have  embarked  on  the  enterprise 
claimed  King,  and  nobody  knows  why.  They  (the  League) 
have  a  grudge  against  the  House  of  Bourbon.  As  long  as  I 
side  with  them  they  will  be  obliged  to  recognize  the  Bourbons. 
Meanwhile,  the  King  of  Navarre,  my  nephew,  will  make  his 
own  way.  What  I  am  doing  is  merely  to  preserve  my  nephew's 
rights."  The  Cardinal  was  a  wise  man.  Notification  of  the 
accession  of  Charles  X  was  sent  to  all  the  towns  in  France, 
and  Mayenne  assumed  the  title  of  Lieutenant-General  of  the 
kingdom. 

Fortified  by  the  knowledge  of  his  rights  and  penetrated  by 
a  sense  of  duty,  inspired,  not  by  any  personal  ambition,  but  by 
a  strong  and  admirable  conviction  of  what  he  owed  to  France, 
Henry  IV  realized  that  he  would  have  to  conquer  his  kingdom 
step  by  step.  He  made  up  his  mind  to  the  task.  He  had 
10,000  men  at  his  disposal,  and  with  them  he  marched  upon 
Rouen.  The  fall  of  that  important  town  would  have  had  a 
considerable  effect.  Mayenne  hastened  from  Paris  with  a  much 
more  powerful  army  to  force  him  to  raise  the  siege.  As  it 
was  impossible  to  await  him  in  such  a  disadvantageous  position 
Henry  IV  retreated  towards  Dieppe.  Wherever  he  went  he 
was  cordial  and  affable  to  all.  "  I  want  no  ceremony,  my 
children,"  he  remarked  on  entering  Dieppe,  "  but  your  friend- 
ship, and  good  bread,  good  wine,  and  kind,  hospitable  faces." 
He  entrenched  himself  strongly  at  Arques,  whither  Mayenne 
came  with  32,000  men  to  attack  him.  For  twelve  days,  the 
army  of  the  League  endeavoured  to  force  the  lines  of  the 
Battle  of  Royalists  in  spite  of  the  cannon  of  Arques  and 

Arques,  1589.  Dieppe.  At  last  on  September  21,  they  thought 
they  had  succeeded.  A  breach  had  been  made  in  the  en- 
trenchments through  which  they  poured  in.  Henry  IV,  how- 
ever, collecting  his  soldiers,  threw  them  against  the  enemy  so 
vigorously  that  the  latter  was  obliged  to  give  way  after  suffering 
severe  losses.  Mayenne  tried  to  turn  the  tables,  but  failed  ; 
whereupon  he  gave  up  the  enterprise  in  disgust  and  went 
away. 

This  success  at  Arques  produced  an  extremely  favourable 

T  289 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

impression.  Supporters  hastened  to  Henry  IV's  side,  and 
tongueville  with  his  troops  joined  him.  He  received  everybody 
with  smiling  cordiality.  In  a  short  time,  he  found,  to  his 
surprise,  that  he  had  mustered  a  force  of  some  23,000  men  about 
him.  They  were  miserably  equipped,  it  is  true,  and  in  rags, 
but  they  were  fairly  well  in  hand  and  confident  of  success. 
Few  French  generals  before  Henry  IV  were  more  clear-headed 
and  resolute  than  he.  He  immediately  made  up  his  mind  to 
march  to  Paris,  "the  bull's-eye  of  the  target,"  as  he  called  it. 
He  was  fully  aware  that  if  he  held  Paris  the  rest  would  follow. 
On  November  1  he  attempted  an  assault  on  the  city  at  three 
different  points  on  the  left  bank,  more  particularly  at  the 
Porte  de  Nesle.  Unfortunately  for  him,  however,  the  League 
made  a  strong  defence  and  repulsed  him.  The  news  that 
Mayenne  was  advancing  swiftly  against  him  made  him  fall 
back,  and,  not  wishing  to  be  caught  between  two  fires,  he 
retreated  to  Tom's.  Still  attracted  by  the  "target,"  however, 
he  soon  set  out  again,  and  occupied  Le  Mans,  Alen9on,  Falaise, 
and  Honfleur,  always  hovering  roimd  Paris.  He  went  about 
gaily,  full  of  energy,  and  was  popular  with  his  soldiers  on  account 
of  his  brilliant  and  thoroughly  French  qualities.  He  called 
himself  *'  a  King  without  a  country,  a  soldier  without  money, 
a  husband  without  a  wife  "  (owing  to  incompatibility  of  tem- 
permanent  and  mutual  infidelity,  Henry  IV  and  Margaret  of 
Valois  had  long  been  separated).  In  that  quick  incisive  style, 
which  makes  him  one  of  the  great  writers  of  France  he  ordered  : 
"  To  horse,  Fervagues,  I  want  to  see  at  once  of  what  feather 
are  the  geese  of  Normandy.  Come  straight  to  Alengon." 
People  followed  readily.  Meanwhile  the  situation  of  his  enemies 
was  becoming  more  and  more  complex. 

In  Paris,  Mayenne's  cause  was  far  from  prosperous.  The 
tyranny  of  the  faction  controlled  by  the  Sixteen  was  increasing. 
Mayenne's  Exasperated  by  their  humiliating  and  demagogic 
difficulties.  conduct,  the  nobility  had  adopted  the  attitude 
of  holding  aloof,  more  especially  as  they  were  attracted  by 
secret  feelings  of  sympathy  for  a  gallant  soldier  like  Henry  IV. 
Mayenne,  deprived  of  the  swords  of  the  nobility,  was  obliged 
to  get  troops  where  he  could,  that  is  to  say,  from  abroad.  Now 
the  foreign  country  where  these  were  most  plentiful  was 
290 


INTERNAL  PEACE.   HENRY  IV 

Spain.  The  King  of  Spain  was  still  keeping  a  watchful  eye 
on  events  in  France.  He  had  conceived  the  extraordinary- 
idea,  not  merely  of  profiting  by  her  troubles  in  order  to 
lay  hands  on  certain  portions  of  territory,  but  actually  of 
seizing  France  and  turning  it  into  a  province  of  his  vast 
empire.  He  had  accordingly  charged  his  ambassador,  Mendoza, 
to  offer  Mayenne  all  the  troops  and  money  he  required  on 
condition  that  he  made  a  treaty  recognizing  Philip  II  as  "  Pro- 
tector of  the  State  and  of  the  religion  of  the  kingdom  of  France." 
This  was  the  first  step.  Mayenne,  who  was  in  sore  need  of  help, 
hesitated.  But  Villeroy  persuaded  him  not  to  accept  Philip's 
offers.  One  of  Henry  Ill's  old  ministers,  who  had  entered 
public  life  at  the  age  of  eighteen  under  Catherine  de'  Medici, 
and  had  quickly  risen  to  the  position  of  Secretary  of  State, 
Monsieur  de  Villeroy  had  been  dismissed  by  Henry  III  on  the 
eve  of  the  assassination  of  the  Guises,  and  had  thrown  in  his 
lot  with  the  League.  He  was  a  man  of  vast  experience,  ex- 
tremely calm  and  deliberate,  with  a  clear  mind,  and  endowed 
with  skill  and  plenty  of  good  sense  and  judgment.  He  was 
destined  to  be  minister  under  Henry  IV  and  Louis  XIII,  and  to 
die  at  the  age  of  seventy-four,  having  served  for  fifty-six  years 
under  five  Kings  in  succession.  It  was  his  secret  aim  to  arrange 
a  definite  understanding  between  Henry  IV  and  the  League — 
an  understanding  of  which  he  would  be  the  author.  He  offered 
a  vigorous  opposition  to  the  Spanish  pretensions.  "  It  would 
be  absolutely  disgraceful,"  he  said,  "  even  to  lend  an  ear  to 
such  proposals,  which  are  only  directed  towards  a  usurpation 
of  the  State  and  its  destruction."  Public  opinion  would  never 
tolerate  them  and  they  would  be  the  undoing  of  Mayenne. 
Mayenne,  thereupon,  declined  the  offers.  But  he  was  now 
holding  out  without  any  forces  to  support  him.  News  was 
arriving  that,  encouraged  by  the  impotence  of  France,  foreigners 
were  preparing  to  invade  her  territories — that  the  Duke  of 
Lorraine  proposed  to  occupy  the  Three  Bishoprics,  and  the 
Duke  of  Savoy,  Provence  and  Dauphiny.  Everything  was 
going  wrong.  But  in  his  distress  Mayenne  at  length  found  an 
ally  in  the  Pope.  Sixtus  V  had  sent  Caietano  to  Paris  as  Legate 
Extraordinary  to  study  the  situation,  and  Caietano  had  pro- 
nounced in  favour  of  the  League,  declaring  that  the  idea    of 

291 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

recognizing  Henry  IV,  who  was  a  heretic  and  excommunicated, 
could  not  be  discussed  for  a  moment.  In  the  name  of  the  Pope 
he  forbade  a  national  council  to  be  summoned  for  the  conversion 
of  the  King  of  Navarre,  on  the  ground  that  it  was  quite  un- 
necessary for  the  King  of  Navarre  to  have  the  assistance  of  a 
national  council  in  order  to  be  converted.  He  also  provided 
Mayenne  with  money.  Strengthened  by  this  moral  support 
and  assisted  by  this  subsidy,  Mayenne  left  Paris  and  marched 
against  Henry  IV,  hoping  to  reduce  him  by  force  of 
arms. 

Henry  IV  had  retreated  towards  Dreux,  to  which  he  laid 
siege.  He  had  at  this  moment  an  army  of  11,000  men  including 
3000  cavalry.  The  army  of  the  League  amounted  to  16,000. 
At  the  approach  of  this  force,  which  outnumbered  his  own, 
the  King  decamped  from  Dreux  and  descended  the  valley  of 
the  Eure.  Mayenne  followed  cautiously.  Then,  suddenly, 
Henry  IV  made  up  his  mind  to  attack  his  adversary.  On 
Battle  of  March  14,  1590,  he  arranged  his  army  on  the  plain 

Ivry,  1590.  of  Ivry  with  six  cannon  in  the  centre  surrounded 
by  cavalry  and  flanked  by  companies  of  infantry.  His  o^vn 
battered  helmet  adorned,  according  to  du  Bartas, "  with  a  horrible 
plume  "  he  galloped  along  the  front  of  his  troops,  who  were  miser- 
ably clad  and  poorly  armed,  repeating  the  famous  words : 
"  Rally  round  my  white  plume ;  you  will  always  find  it  on  the  road 
to  honour  and  victory  !  "  Mayenne  would  have  preferred  not 
to  fight,  but  he  was  obliged  to  accept  the  encounter.  After  a 
few  cannon  shots  his  cavalry  broke  up.  Their  retreat  was 
badly  managed,  however,  for  the  horsemen,  fleeing  in  haste, 
hustled  each  other,  and  confusion  prevailed.  The  King  of 
Navarre  seized  the  opportunity  to  charge  right  through  them, 
and  carried  along  by  his  vigorous  onslaught,  his  cavalry 
wrought  havoc  in  the  enemy's  lines.  Henry  IV  fought  like 
an  ordinary  carabineer,  bravely  and  heroically.  Galvanized 
by  his  example  his  men  followed  him  shouting,  "  Long  Hve 
the  King !  "  As  soon  as  the  cavalry  was  beaten  they 
hurled  themselves  upon  the  infantry.  The  Swiss  contingents 
belonging  to  the  League  laid  down  their  arms,  and  Mayenne, 
seeing  that  the  battle  was  lost,  took  to  flight,  leaving  6000  men 
and  eighty  standards  on  the  field.  "  God  has  shown,"  Henry 
292 


INTERNAL    PEACE.      HENRY   IV 

IV  wrote  that  evening,  "that  he  loves  right  better  than  might." 
He  invited  all  the  chiefs  of  the  victorious  army  to  dinner  at  the 
Chateau  de  Rosny. 

Having  beaten  the  enemy,  Henry  IV,  ever  faithful  to  his 
goal,  turned  towards  Paris.  Unfortunately,  the  impracticable 
Siege  of  Paris  condition  of  the  roads  made  the  march  of  his 
renewed.  army  slow,  and  want  of  money  obliged  him  to 

remain  a  fortnight  at  Mantes  in  order  to  reorganize  his  forces. 
It  was  only  in  Ajjril  that  he  was  able  to  begin  the  investiture 
of  Paris  by  occupying  Charenton,  the  Buttes-Chaumont,  and 
Montmartre.  Mayenne  had  left  for  Picardy  in  order  to  raise 
an  army,  leaving  Paris  under  the  charge  of  his  brother,  the  Duke 
of  Nemours,  a  young  man  of  two-and-twenty,  an  extremely 
active  and  intelligent  youth.  He  took  advantage  of  the  fort- 
night's respite  which  Henry  IV's  delay  at  Mantes  gave  him 
to  prepare  for  the  siege.  The  city  was  very  badly  equipped. 
It  had  neither  provisions  nor  ammunition,  the  ramparts  were  in 
ruins,  and  there  was  but  one  mounted  cannon,  the  rest  having 
been  removed  for  use  on  campaign.  He  had  provisions  brought 
in,  strengthened  the  walls,  obliging  everybody,  workmen  and 
citizens  alike,  to  lend  a  hand  ;  and  made  ready  to  receive 
the  attack.  The  organized  mihtia,  it  was  said,  gave  him 
50,000  men.  Henry  IV  had  only  13,000,  and  not  daring  to 
attempt  a  capture  by  assault,  he  tried  to  starve  out  the  garri- 
son. All  the  exits  of  the  city  were  guarded  and  the  roads 
occupied.  Not  a  single  waggon  was  allowed  to  pass  the  roads, 
nor  a  boat  to  navigate  the  Seine.  In  time,  it  was  hoped,  success 
would  crown  his  efforts.  On  May  9,  the  news  arrived  that 
Cardinal  Bourbon  was  dead.  Mayenne  sent  word  to  say 
that  this  event  made  no  difference,  that  he  was  still  Lieutenant - 
General  of  the  kingdom,  and  that  the  States-General  would 
decide  the  question  of  a  successor.  The  beleaguered  capital 
continued  to  hold  out.  In  order  to  keep  up  the  spirits  of  the 
inmates  grand  processions  were  organized.  A  solemn  one  was 
held  on  May  14,  in  which  the  Papal  Legate,  three  bishops  and 
all  the  clergy  and  authorities  joined.  A  yet  more  extra- 
ordinary exliibition  took  place  later,  when  some  1300  priests, 
monks,  friars,  and  students,  wearing  breastplates  and  helmets, 
with  muskets  on  their  shoulders,  marched  through  the  streets. 

293 


CENTURY    OF   THE    RENAISSANCE 

The  upper  middle  classes  who  were   favourable  to  Henry  IV 
afterwards  derided  these  demonstrations. 

But  the  days  were  slipping  by.  Provisions  began  to  run 
short  and  prices  were  raised.  Well-to-do  people  sold  their 
plate.  Finally,  to  avoid  reproach,  the  Papal  Legate  gave  a 
sum  of  50,000  crowns  and  all  his  own  plate  for  the  benefit  of 
the  poor.  He  also  allowed  Church  vessels  to  be  pawned.  The 
ambassador,  Mendoza,  talked  of  advancing  120  crowns  a  day  ; 
and  princes,  communities,  and  people  of  impoitance  subscribed 
to  aid  the  sufferers.  In  the  streets  "  huge  caldrons  of  soup  " 
were  to  be  seen  from  which  the  destitute  were  fed.  What 
was  Mayenne  doing  all  this  time  ?  Why  did  he  not  come 
to  the  help  of  the  city  ?  Mayenne  in  despair  was  trying 
to  collect  troops  in  Picardy,  where  he  only  succeeded  in 
raising  3000  or  4000  men.  He  begged  Spain  to  help  him.  But 
Spain,  now  assuming  a  haughty  attitude,  insisted  upon  his 
first  delivering  up  some  towns  in  Picardy.  This  Mayenne 
refused  to  do.  He  appealed  to  Alessandro  Farnese,  the  Governor 
of  the  Netherlands,  a  less  harsh  and  grasping  man  than  Philip. 
The  Duke  at  first  objected  that  he  had  not  yet  completed  the 
conquest  of  the  Netherlands,  but  he  nevertheless  consented  to 
send  a  contingent  of  troops.  As  a  precaution  Mayenne  hastened 
to  garrison  the  towns  of  Picardy,  the  gates  of  which  were  kept 
carefully  closed.  Farnese,  indeed,  talked  of  coming  to  France 
himself. 

Mayenne  advanced  towards  Paris  with  the  Spanish  con- 
tingent, and  Henry  IV,  accompanied  by  a  few  detachments, 
marched  to  meet  him.  Somewhat  alarmed,  Mayenne  took 
refuge  behind  the  walls  of  Laon.  The  King  of  France  left  him 
there  and  returned  to  the  beleaguered  city.  He  felt  more 
confident  than  ever.  From  all  sides  recruits,  both  numerous 
and  important,  were  flocking  to  his  standard,  saluting  him  as 
the  King  of  to-morrow  on  the  eve  of  victory.  They  included 
Chatillon,  La  Tremoille,  Conti,  the  Duke  of  Nevers,  and  their 
followers.  He  now  had  23,000  men  at  his  disposal.  On  July 
7,  1590,  he  took  Saint-Denis  ;  on  the  24th  he  attempted  a 
general  assault  on  Paris  by  night  at  about  two  o'clock  in  the 
morning.  It  was  unsuccessful,  but  it  had  the  effect  of  drawing 
the  blockade  closer.  In  the  city  provisions  became  gradually 
294 


INTERNAL  PEACE.   HENRY  IV 

scarcer  and  scarcer.  Famine  was  staring  people  in  the  face, 
and  they  were  eating  dogs,  cats,  and  rats,  after  having  lived  on 
Horrors  of  a  wash  of  oatmeal  and  water.  Butter  was  sold  at 
the  siege.  three  crowns  a  pound  instead  of  twopence-half- 

penny ;  eggs,  if  there  were  any  at  all  to  be  had,  were  sixpence 
a  piece.  In  three  months  1300  people  died  of  want.  Miserable 
wretches  were  to  be  seen  devouring  raw  remains  and  the  entrails 
of  animals  out  of  the  gutters  ;  it  was  even  said  that  there  were 
cases  of  cannibalism.  Moved  by  pity  at  the  description  of 
these  horrors,  Henry  IV  is  said  to  have  allowed  provisions  to 
be  sold  to  a  few  people  of  rank,  and  permitted  many  poor  persons 
to  leave  the  city.  Meanwhile  public  opinion  in  Paris  began  to 
be  exasperated  by  all  this  misery.  Crowds  collected  demanding 
"  bread  or  peace."  Violent  manifestations  took  place,  and  so 
lively  a  pressure  was  brought  to  bear  upon  the  Duke  of  Nemours 
that  he  was  obliged  in  terror  to  ask  the  Bishop  of  Paris  to  see 
Henry  IV  and  discover  what  conditions  he  would  accept.  The 
King  of  France  demanded  the  submission  of  Paris,  pm-e  and 
simple  ;  but,  allowing  his  feelings  of  pity  to  get  the  better  of 
him,  he  granted  a  week's  respite  during  which  the  women  and 
children  were  allowed  to  leave  Paris.  This  concession  proved 
his  undoing,  for  during  this  interval,  the  Duke  of  Parma  kept 
his  word,  and  joined  Mayenne  at  Meaux  on  August  23,  with  a 
force  of  13,000  men.  The  Duke  of  Nemours,  informed  of  this, 
took  measures  to  hold  out,  whilst  the  army  of  the  League,  now 
23,000  strong,  one-third  French  and  the  rest  foreigners,  a  well 
disciplined,  well  armed  and  well  equipped  force,  followed  by 
1500  waggons  stocked  with  provisions,  was  hurrying  towards 
the  place  it  was  to  relieve.  The  struggle  became  impossible 
for  Henry  IV,  who  was  caught  between  two  fires  ;  his  soldiers 
were  worn  out  and  the  nobles  were  anxious  to  return  home. 
He  himself,  as  usual,  was  short  of  money  and  was  living  on 
Siege  of  Paris  loans.  He  raised  the  siege,  dismissed  his  volun- 
raised.  teers,    and   contented   himself   with   distributing 

his  companies  of  infantry  and  cavalry  in  the  various  garrisons 
round  about  Paris  behind  the  shelter  of  solid  walls,  so  that  the 
League's  sphere  of  power  might  at  least  be  kept  within  bounds. 
This  was  a  serious  check.  The  Papal  Legate  had  a  solemn 
Te    Deum    of     thanksgiving    sung.     Mayenne    congratulated 

295 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

himself.  His  joy,  however,  was  destined  to  be  but  short-lived. 
Once  the  siege  had  been  raised,  the  Duke  of  Parma,  declaring 
that  he  had  come  for  that  purpose  alone,  took  his  departure 
and  began  to  make  his  way  back  to  the  Netherlands.  Mean- 
while, the  indefatigable  Henry  IV,  far  from  losing  heart,  was 
returning  to  his  campaign  with  more  energy  than  ever.  His 
plan  of  action  was  to  harass  the  capital,  with  the  support  of 
the  garrisons  belonging  to  him,  and  thus  prepare  the  way  for 
a  fresh  investment,  and  starve  out  the  city  once  more.  He 
consequently  kept  hovering  about  "  like  a  bird  of  prey," 
blockading  roads  and  stopping  the  entry  of  provisions.  He 
reinforced  his  garrisons,  raised  loans  in  Italy,  and  begging  all 
his  partisans  to  join  him,  laid  siege  to  Chartres,  which  he  took 
Capture  of  at  the  end  of  a  month.  Mayenne,  in  great  anxiety, 
Chartres.  begged  for  and  obtained  a  reinforcement  of  4000 

soldiers  from  Spain. 

More  clearly  than  ever  did  Henry  IV  realize  that  he  would 
only  win  his  kingdom  by  forcibly  laying  hold  of  it.  Dieu  et 
mon  droit,  he  kept  repeating.  This  was  his  motto,  and  he  be- 
lieved in  it.  In  vain  did  Rome  hurl  her  thunderbolts  against 
him.  Pope  Sjxtus  V  had  been  succeeded  by  Gregory  XIV, 
who,  in  a  brief,  dated  February  1591,  had  commanded  his 
Legate,  Phihp  Sega,  Caietano's  successor,  to  forbid  the  French 
bishops  to  recognize  Henry  IV,  and  summoned  the  King's 
CathoUc  partisans  to  withdraw  their  allegiance  on  pain  of 
excommunication.  This  was  a  heavy  blow.  His  Catholic 
supporters  had  begged  the  Eang  of  France  to  make  up  his  mind 
to  recant,  and  his  whole  family  had  supported  this  request. 
Vendome  and  Soissons  had  pointed  out  that  he  would  lose  the 
crown  for  the  House  of  Bourbon  and  the  moderates  added 
their  voices  to  the  general  chorus,  in  the  name  of  reason,  common 
sense,  and  prudence.  Henry  IV,  greatly  irritated,  had  resisted 
their  demands,  teUing  his  relatives  to  hold  their  peace,  and 
protesting  hotly  against  the  interference  of  the  Pope  in  political 
questions  that  did  not  concern  him.  At  his  instigation  protests 
were  made  by  the  Royahst  ParUaments,  who  remained  true 
to  the  old  GalUcan  traditions,  and  even  by  a  small  assembly 
of  nine  archbishops  and  bishops.  The  French  clergy  were 
extremely  anxious,  divided,  and  uncertain. 
296 


INTERNAL  PEACE.   HENRY  IV 

Landriano,  a  fresh  legate,  who  was  sent  to  Paris,  advised 
Mayenne  to  settle  the  matter  by  summoning  the  States- General 
and  having  a  King  elected.  But  the  time  was  not  ripe  for 
this.  The  King  of  Spain  and  his  ambitious  designs  excited 
suspicion  ;  elections,  in  a  country  so  divided  in  opinion,  were  no 
easy  matter  ;  nor  was  it  feasible  to  get  the  deputies  to  Paris. 
All  Mayenne's  counsellors,  including  Villeroy  and  Jeannin, 
advised  him  to  give  an  evasive  reply.  He  accordingly  declined 
to  act,  utterly  at  a  loss  what  course  to  pursue. 

The  Sixteen  thereupon  attributed  this  irresolute    attitude 
to  the  growing  influence  of  the  moderate  party  ;   and  there  was 
Violence  of        an  outburst  of  anger  against  the  "politicians."  The 
the  Sixteen.       more  ardent  imperatively  demanded  that  measures 
should  be  taken  against  the  moderates  in  order  to  secure  the 
safety  of  the  cause.     They  insisted  upon  expulsions,  arrests, 
and  even  the  use  of  the  harshest  measures.     Lists  were  issued, 
called  red  papers,  containing  the  names  of  suspects,  with  letters 
against  them — p.  d.  or  o.  {pendu,  dagud,  or  chassi,  hanged, 
stabbed,  or  exiled).     Amongst  those  most  seriously  menaced 
were  members  of  the  Parliament,  calm  and  sedate  adminis- 
trators   of    justice,    who   were    indignant    at    the    demagogic 
transports  of  excited  persons,  for  the  most  part  of  low  birth, 
vulgar,  brutal  people  who  set  themselves  up  to  be  masters  of 
Paris,  and  tried  to  lay  down  the  law  for  everybody.     An  in- 
cident occurred  which  made   the  bolt  fall.      The    procurator 
royal  at  the  Hotel  de  Ville,  a  certain  Brigard,  was  caught  in 
the  act  of  sending  a  letter  to  Saint-Denis,  to  the  enemy's  camp. 
It  was  couched  in  enigmatical  terms,  but  was  thought  to  contain 
the  proofs  of  his  treachery.     He  was  arrested.     The  extremists 
demanded  his  trial ;   but  the  Parliament,  regarding  the  charge 
as  non-proven,  acquitted  him.     The  indignation  of  the  violent 
Execution  o!      spirits  was  unbounded,  and  they  vented  it  chiefly 
Brisson,  1591.    on  the  President,  Brisson,  a  somewhat  feeble  and 
complaisant  individual,  the  victim  of  his  own  vacillation.     "  I 
feel  I  am  drowning,"  he  said.     "  I  should  like  to  save  myself 
and  reach  some  landing-place,  but  I  am  unable  to  do  so  and 
am  carried  away  by  the  strength  of  the  current."     On  November 
15,  1591,  as  he  was  on  his  way  to  the  Parliament,  he,  together 
with  the  counsellors  Tardif  and  Larcher,  was  stopped  by  a 

297 


CENTURY    OF   THE     RENAISSANCE 

band  of  zealots  and  conducted  to  the  prisons  of  the  Petit 
Chatelet.  Here  he  was  brought  before  a  sort  of  judicial  board, 
over  which  one  of  the  Sixteen  presided  ;  and  after  a  farce  of 
a  trial  was  hanged  with  the  two  counsellors  from  the  beam  of 
one  of  the  rooms  in  the  Chatelet.  These  summary  executions 
produced  a  profound  impression.  Parliament  declared  that 
the  administration  of  justice  had  been  taken  out  of  its  hands, 
and  begged  Mayenne,  who  was  away  from  Paris  at  the  time, 
to  come  back  and  put  a  stop  to  the  bloodthirsty  fury  of  an 
intolerable  oligarchy.  Mayenne  hastened  to  the  city  with 
3000  cavalry,  and  seized  fourteen  of  the  ring-leaders,  among 
them  those  who  had  been  responsible  for  the  execution  of  the 
magistrates.  He  had  four  of  them  hanged  from  the  rafters 
of  the  great  guard-room  at  the  Louvre,  and  the  rest  cast  into 
prison.  Their  accomplices  fled.  With  one  energetic  blow  he 
had  punished  the  outrage  they  had  committed  ;  but  the  situa- 
tion remained  as  gloomy  as  before.  He  still  stood  irresolute 
between  the  extremists  and  the  moderate  party,  unable,  un- 
willing, or  afraid  to  express  his  wishes  clearly. 

Henry  IV  was  constantly  in  the  saddle,  galloping  and  laying 
about  him.  "I  am  making  good  progress,"  he  wrote,  "  I  go 
A  fruitless  wherever  God  leads  me,  for  I  know  not  where  I 

campaign,  1591.  shall  end."  He  conceived  the  idea  of  capturing 
Rouen,  which  was  defended  by  Villars  Brancas,  a  member  of 
the  League.  On  November  11,  1591,  his  lieutenant,  Biron, 
began  the  siege.  Mayenne  again  appealed  to  the  Duke  of 
Parma,  who  consented  to  come  to  his  aid  with  25,000  men. 
The  season  was  bad.  It  rained  and  snowed,  and  the  country 
was  broken  up.  The  two  armies  skirmished  continuously,  the 
Royalist  forces  taking  shelter  behind  entrenchments.  Nothing 
decisive  occurred.  After  some  time  the  two  adversaries  each 
went  his  way.  Farnese  returned  home,  and  Henry  IV,  whose 
army,  composed  half  of  Huguenots  and  half  of  Catholics,  always 
quarrelling  with  each  other,  was  worn  out  and  famished,  dis- 
missed the  main  body  of  his  troops,  and  set  himself  to  harassing 
the  retreating  Spaniards  with  the  help  of  a  few  intrepid  and 
faithful  followers.  The  campaign  had  been  fruitless,  and 
matters  had  not  advanced  a  single  step. 

In  this  state  of  general  uncertainty,   Villeroy  thought  it 
298 


INTERNAL    PEACE.      HENRY    IV 

might  be  possible  to  come  to  a  solution  by  negotiation  with 
Henry  IV  on  the  one  hand,  and  by  summoning  the  States- 
Attempts  at  General  on  the  other.  If  only  the  King  of 
negotiation.  Navarre  could  be  brought  to  understand  that  his 
conversion  was  the  one  possible  way  of  escape  from  the  con- 
flict !  Mayenne  let  him  have  his  way,  and  Villeroy  had  an 
interview  with  du  Plessis  Mornay  and  Henry  IV.  He  was 
insistent,  and  pressed  his  case  home.  The  League,  he  said, 
was  about  to  find  itself  involved  in  very  unacceptable  preten- 
sions on  the  part  of  Spain.  A  choice  had  to  be  made.  Every 
day  Henry  IV  was  besieged  by  similar  arguments  from  his 
Catholic  supporters,  whilst  even  a  few  Protestants,  hke  his 
faithful  friend  Rosny,  afterwards  Duke  of  Sully,  ended  by 
acknowledging  that  the  only  way  out  of  the  difficulties  seemed 
to  be  a  recantation.  Henry  IV  accordingly  decided  to  send 
the  Marquis  of  Pisani  and  Cardinal  Gondi  to  Rome  to  negotiate 
with  the  Pope.     Was  he  wavering  ? 

In  Paris  the  news  of  Villeroy's  mission  produced  a  con- 
siderable agitation,  resulting  in  the  strengthening  of  moderate 
ideas.  PubHc  opinion  was  gradually  veering  towards  the 
solution  it  felt  to  be  inevitable.  Moreover,  the  arrival  of  the 
Spanish  troops,  the  foreigners,  had  upset  the  people.  The 
moderate  party,  headed  by  a  certain  d'Aubray,  an  ex-Provost 
of  the  Merchants,  grew  bolder.  They  won  over  the  Parisian 
militia,  thirteen  out  of  sixteen  of  whose  colonels  were  already 
on  their  side,  as  well  as  the  commandants  and  a  number  of 
cajitains.  They  proposed  that  an  exhortation  (semonce)  should 
be  presented  to  King  Henry  asking  him  to  be  converted.  The 
party  was  accordingly  dubbed  the  "exhorters"  {semonneux). 
After  having  been  overwhelmed  by  the  extremists,  Mayenne 
was  now  overwhelmed  by  the  moderates,  so  Httle  did  he  com- 
mand the  situation.  The  truth  was  that  he  wanted  the  crown 
himself  ;  but  caught  in  the  toils  between  the  dangerous  am- 
bitions of  Spain,  the  extremists,  the  moderates,  and  the  supporters 
of  Henry  IV,  and  feeUng  that  his  own  candidature  was  not 
even  admissible,  he  was  uncertain  as  to  the  course  which  would 
best  further  his  own  interests.  In  this  state  of  indecision  he 
convoked  the  States-General.  They  might  perhaps  be  able 
to  hold  the  "  exhorters  "  and  the  extremists  in  check,  and  give 

299 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

time  for   deliberation.     From  Rome  the  news  came  that  the 
Pope  had  refused  to  receive  the  King  of  Navarre's  envoys. 

The  States -General,  summoned  to  meet  in  Paris,  assembled 
on  January  26,  1593.  They  could  hardly  be  called  "  General." 
The  States-  A  large  number  of  provinces  had  refused  to  send 
General  of  1593.deputies,  and  many  had  found  it  impossible  to 
reach  Paris  owing  to  the  dangers  of  the  joiu-ney.  There  were 
barely  128  representatives  :  forty-nine  ecclesiastics,  twenty-four 
nobles  and  fifty-five  members  of  the  Third  Estate  ;  whereas 
the  States  which  had  met  at  Blois  had  consisted  of  505  deputies. 
It  was  the  ghost  of  a  parliament.  The  Satyr e  Menippee  covered 
it  with  ridicule,  but  it  deserves  a  better  reputation  than  it 
possesses  ;  for  it  showed  judgment,  moderation,  dignity  and 
patriotism  in  peculiarly  difficult  circumstances. 

Mayenne  presided  over  the  opening  session  in  the  Louvre, 
sitting  under  a  royal  canopy  of  cloth  of  gold,  as  if  to  prepare 
the  minds  of  the  assembly  for  his  election.  He  explained  that 
the  States  had  been  summoned  in  order  to  nominate  a  Catholic 
King  of  France.  But  unfortunately  for  Mayenne  nobody  took 
his  candidature  seriously,  a  fact  which  embarrassed  him,  and 
made  his  address  vague  and  devoid  of  character.  The  envoy 
of  the  King  of  Spain  was  seated  in  one  of  the  tribunes,  and  the 
Papal  Legate  was  also  present.  In  the  first  place  it  was  pro- 
posed to  open  negotiations  with  Henry  IV,  with  a  view  to 
examining  the  situation.  The  Legate  then  spoke  and  opposed 
the  suggested  conferences.  The  States,  irritated  by  this 
interference,  voted  in  favour  of  the  conferences.  In  the  end 
they  even  refused  to  hold  their  debates  in  the  presence  of  the 
Pope's  envoy.  The  feeling  that  obsessed  all  minds  was  the 
fear  of  Spain.  They  stood  in  need  of  her  help — her  money 
and  her  soldiers.  She  was  sending  yet  another  contingent 
of  5000  men  under  the  command  of  the  Count  of  Mansfeld. 
But  her  pretensions  were  disconcerting.  It  had  been  known 
Philip  IPs  ever  since  the    battle    of    Ivry,  that  Philip   II's 

pretensions.  dream  was  to  be  elected  King  of  France. 
France  would  thus  become  a  province  of  his  Empire.  The 
privileges  to  be  accorded  her  would  certainly  be  appreciable : 
municipal  freedom,  the  regular  convocation  of  the  States - 
General,  which  would  have  passed  laws  and  voted  taxes,  the 
300 


INTERNAL  PEACE.   HENRY  IV 

exclusive  nomination  of  Frenchmen  to  official  posts — in  short 
a  broad  and  intelligent  autonomy.  Many  men  in  France  had 
admitted  the  possibility  of  this  combination,  and  committees 
had  been  formed  to  defend  the  idea,  adding  the  stipulation  that 
France  should  be  allowed  free  trade  with  the  Spanish  colonies. 
But  on  reflection  Philip  II  had  renounced  this  plan  and  turned 
to  another  scheme.  As  he  himself  had  married  a  sister  of  the 
last  three  Valois,  he  considered  that  his  daughter,  Isabella 
Clara  Eugenia,  as  a  descendant  of  Henry  II,  might  claim  the 
vacant  throne  of  France.  The  Salic  law,  it  was  true,  precluded 
this,  that  famous  Salic  law  which  everybody  talked  about, 
though  no  one  could  quote  the  text  bearing  on  the  succession 
to  the  throne — a  text,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  which  was  non- 
existent. The  Salic  Law  could  be  set  aside.  This  was  the 
candidature  which  the  States  expected  to  have  presented  to 
them  under  the  most  embarrassing  political  conditions.  The 
Duke  of  Feria  was  sent  from  Spain  as  ambassador  extraordinary 
to  follow  the  proceedings.  Mayenne  had  an  interview  with 
him  at  Soissons,  when  he  renewed  his  demand  for  troops.  Feria 
was  somewhat  curt  with  him;  he  offered,  if  Mayenne  would 
accept  the  King  of  Spain's  proposals,  to  make  him  Lieutenant- 
General  of  the  kingdom  and  Governor  of  Burgundy  and  Picardy. 
Mayenne  answered  evasively,  saying  that  he  would  refer  the 
matter  to  the  States.  The  ambassador  retorted  with  con- 
siderable vivacity  and  the  discussion  became  heated,  Mayenne 
even  going  so  far  as  to  tell  Feria  that  the  French  would  not 
be  treated  like  the  Indians. 

Feria  came  to  Paris  and  attended  the  assembly  of  the  States, 
where  he  was  given  an  official  reception  on  April  2,  1593.  He 
made  a  long  speech,  in  which  he  dwelt  on  all  the  King  of  Spain 
had  done  and  was  doing  for  the  Catholic  cause,  but  confined 
himself  to  concluding  that  it  was  high  time  that  the  States 
elected  a  king.  Their  attention,  however,  at  this  moment  was 
occupied  by  the  conferences  with  Henry  IV,  the  principle  of 
The  Con-  which  had  been  adopted.     These  conferences  were 

ferences  of         being   held   at   Suresnes.     The   League   was   re- 
Suresnes.  presented    by    Villeroy,    Jeannin    and    d'Epinac, 

Archbishop  of  Lyons  ;    the  Royalists  by  de  Thou,  Schomberg, 
and  Regnault  de  Beaune,  Archbishop  of  Bourges.     They  were 

301 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

inaugurated  under  excellent  conditions,  for  on  the  eve  of  their 
first  meeting,  Henry  IV,  in  conversation  with  the  Superintendent 
d'O  and  the  Archbishop  of  Boiu-ges,  had  confessed  that  he 
certainly  saw  no  solution  of  the  dilemma  with  which  they  were 
grappling  save  to  turn  Catholic.  The  vital  word  had  been 
spoken.  If  the  League,  argued  Henry  IV,  appointed  a 
King,  an  interminable  struggle  would  begin  against  the  new 
monarch.  It  was  obvious  that  France  would  not  acknowledge 
a  Protestant  sovereign  at  any  price,  and  under  these  circum- 
stances it  would  perhaps  be  best  for  him  to  yield.  These 
confidential  remarks,  which  were  repeated  at  Suresnes,  greatly 
facilitated  the  task  of  the  negotiators.  They  began  by  deciding 
upon  an  armistice  of  ten  days,  the  news  of  which  was  received 
with  great  joy  in  Paris  as  foreshadowing  a  possible  speedy 
conclusion  of  peace.  The  extremists  had  the  ground  cut  from 
beneath  them.  When  they  were  asked  what  they  would  do 
if  the  King  of  Navarre  were  converted,  they  replied  that  they 
would  await  a  decision  from  Rome.  But  the  possibility  of  his 
recantation  disconcerted  them. 

No  one  was  more  embarrassed  than  Mayenne,  whose  per- 
sonal interests  were  inextricably  involved  !  He  maintained  an 
enigmatic  attitude.  "Nobody,"  wrote  Estoile,  "can  discover 
what  part  the  Duke  of  Mayenne  is  playing.  He  is  a  mystery 
to  all."  He  confined  himself  to  saying  that  he  would  always 
defend  the  interests  of  Catholicism — a  vague  declaration  ! 
The  Spaniards,  partly  from  insolence  and  partly  from  igno- 
rance, kept  demanding  the  election  of  a  king  of  France  ; 
and  finally  officially  proposed  the  candidature  of  the  Infanta 
Isabella  Clara  Eugenia.  "  The  abscess  of  the  Kjng  of  Spain's 
ambition  has  burst  at  last !  "  people  exclaimed.  The  Salic 
Law  was  invoked,  and  the  Parliament  protested  vigorously 
in  the  name  of  the  fundamental  laws  of  the  land.  The  am- 
bassadors wrote  memoranda  answering  these  objections,  and 
one  of  their  theologians  came  to  the  States  and  explained  to 
them  that  there  was  nothing  to  prevent  the  proposed  election. 
The  States  listened  in  silence.  The  Spanish  ambassador, 
thereupon,  boldly  called  upon  them  to  proceed  to  the  election 
of  the  Infanta  Isabella  as  Queen  of  France  in  her  own  right, 
and  even  went  so  far  as  to  add  that  the  princess  would  prob- 
302 


INTERNAL   PEACE.      HENRY   IV 

ably  marry  an  Austrian  Archduke,  the  Archduke  Ernest,  who 
did  not  know  French  perhaps,  but  who  would  certainly  learn 
it.  To  this  proposal  the  States  refused  to  give  their  consent : 
the  plan  presented  to  them  was  contrary  to  the  "  laws  and 
ordinances  of  France."  Mayenne  then  suggested  that  the 
States  should  elect  a  king  who  should  marry  the  Infanta.  This 
proposal  seemed  to  meet  with  a  certain  amount  of  favour,  and 
the  Spanish  envoys  said  they  would  accept  it,  on  condition 
that  Isabella  was  recognized  as  Queen  in  her  own  right,  and 
that  Philip  II  chose  his  daughter's  husband.  The  States 
retorted  that  they  must  first  know  the  name  of  the  husband 
in  question.  It  was  clear  that  they  were  merely  trying  to 
gain  time  whilst  awaiting  the  result  of  the  conferences  at 
Suresnes. 

Public  opinion  was  slowly  turning  in  the  direction  of  Henry 
IV  and  demanding  peace.  Petitions  were  signed,  and  Villeroy 
Opposition  to  deliberately  abandoned  the  League  and  went  over 
Spanish  to  the  King  of  France.     Many  others  followed 

demands.  his  example,  and  all  were  graciously  received  by 

Henry  IV.  The  Parliament  issued  decree  after  decree  against 
the  Spanish  demands,  declaring  them  contrary  to  public  law, 
and  Le  Maistre,  the  President,  maintained  that  as  the  States 
were  not  represented  in  their  full  numbers,  they  were  not 
qualified  to  make  any  fundamental  change  in  the  laws  of  the 
land.  The  States  thereupon  decided  to  tell  the  Spaniards  that 
after  due  reflection  they  had  come  to  the  conclusion  that  the 
moment  was  unfavourable,  and  that  they  could  not  proceed 
to  the  election  of  a  King  whom  the  League  was  not  in  a  position 
to  defend.  Philip  II's  ambassadors  then  retreated  step  by 
step,  saying  that  they  would  accept  the  candidature  of  the 
Duke  of  Guise,  and  proposing  a  marriage  between  that  prince 
and  the  Infanta.  But  the  Duke  of  Guise  was  unwilling  to 
accept  a  position  which  he  could  not  maintain  ;  he  refused. 
To  the  demands  for  money  and  soldiers  which  they  received 
from  all  quarters,  the  Spaniards  returned  evasive  replies,  with 
the  result  that  they  were  reproached  with  trying  to  back  out 
of  their  agreements,  and  taunted  with  being  unable  to  give 
anything.  "  There  is  not  a  single  person,"  Mendoza  wrote  to 
Spain,  '*  who  does  not  cast  it  in  our  teeth  that  we  lack  every- 

303 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

thing."     Mayenne  seized  the  opportunity  to  propose  a  truce 
with  Henry  IV. 

The  forthcoming  conversion  of  the  King  of  France  was 
awaited  and  counted  upon  by  everybody  ;  it  went  forward 
Recantation  apace.  In  July,  1593,  Henry  IV  had  a  con- 
of  Henry  IV,  ference  with  the  bishops  at  Saint-Denis,  to  discuss 
1593.  certain  religious  questions  that  occupied  his  mind. 

The  conference  lasted  five  hours  and  was  extremely  lively. 
The  theologians  were  obliged  to  pass  over  certain  points  to  which 
they  could  not  get  the  King  to  agree — the  doctrine  of  Purgatory, 
for  example,  the  worship  of  the  Saints,  which  Henry  IV  re- 
garded as  "an  absurdity,"  and  the  authority  of  the  Pope.  He 
gave  way,  apparently  without  much  faith  in  the  things  he  was 
told.  "  You  do  not  fully  persuade  me,"  he  kept  repeating. 
"  I  am  not  as  satisfied  as  I  could  wish  to  be.  But  to-day  I 
put  my  soul  in  your  hands.  I  pray  you  take  care  of  it  ;  for 
wherever  you  make  me  enter  I  shall  leave  only  by  the  gate 
of  death — that  I  promise  and  vow  to  you."  And  so  saying 
he  wept.  He  was  sincere  though  he  was  not  firmly  convinced. 
The  Protestants  of  France,  who  still  doubted  his  conversion, 
were  fasting  and  praying  "  that  it  might  please  God  to  grant 
their  King  constancy  of  purpose."  He  was  made  to  sign  a 
formal  act  of  recantation.  On  July  23,  he  wrote  to  his  mistress 
Gabrielle  d'Estrees,  half  jestingly,  half  anxiously,  "  On  Sunday 
I  shall  make  the  perilous  plunge."  He  was  taking  this  step 
not  from  any  personal  ambition  but  for  the  good  of  the  State. 
The  solemn  recantation  took  place  on  July  25  at  Saint-Denis, 
under  the  great  porch  of  the  Abbey  Chm-ch,  in  the  midst  of  a 
vast  concourse  of  spectators.  Henry  IV  was  dressed  entirely 
in  white,  and  was  surrounded  by  princes,  nobles.  Crown  officials 
and  guards  with  drums  beating.  Sitting  on  a  chair  covered 
with  white  damask  the  Archbishop  of  Bourges  awaited  him, 
supported  by  about  ten  bishops  and  the  monks  from  the  mon- 
astery. "  Who  are  you  ?  "  asked  the  prelate.  "  I  am  the 
King."  "  What  is  it  you  ask  ?  "  "I  ask  to  be  received  into 
the  bosom  of  the  Church."  "  Do  you  really  desire  this  ?  " 
"  Yes,  I  wish  and  desire  it."  Henry  IV  then  knelt  down  and 
read  his  profession  of  faith.  "  I  promise  and  vow  before  the 
face  of  Almighty  God  to  live  and  die  in  the  Catholic  religion." 
804 


INTERNAL  PEACE.  HENRY  IV 

He  was  thereupon  conducted  to  the  choir,  whilst  the  swarming 
crowd  shouted,  "  Long  Uve  the  King  !  "  He  made  his  con- 
fession, heard  High  Mass,  and  was  present  at  a  Te  Deum.  His 
recantation  was  consummated. 

In  Paris  furious  preachers  declared  that  it  was  null  and 
void,  and  the  Papal  Legate  announced  that  the  prelates  at 
Saint-Denis  had  no  power  to  withdraw  the  pontifical  excom- 
munication. Throughout  the  kingdom,  however,  Te  Deums  of 
joy  were  sung,  and  public  opinion  became  more  and  more 
favourable  to  the  new  King.  Mayenne  signed  a  truce  of  three 
months  and  also  adjourned  the  States-General  for  that  period, 
asserting,  however,  that  until  the  Pope  had  pronounced  his 
verdict,  nothing  was  decided.  The  Spaniards,  somewhat  taken 
aback,  held  themselves  in  reserve  and  waited.  Rome  had  yet 
to  be  persuaded  to  give  her  consent,  and  Henry  IV  sent  the  Duke 
of  Nevers,  together  with  some  prelates,  to  discuss  matters  with 
Pope  Clement  VIII.  The  Holy  Father  received  them  coldly 
in  a  private  audience,  and  not  as  ambassadors.  He  raised 
numerous  difficulties,  saying  that  Henry  IV  had  offered  no 
guarantees,  that  the  Papacy  did  not  wish  to  abandon  Spain, 
and  that  the  Catholics  of  the  League  were  superior  to  the 
others.  In  vain  did  the  envoys  insist  that  the  King  had  two- 
thirds  of  the  country  on  his  side,  together  with  the  various 
Parliaments,  and  that  he  was  the  lawful  King  of  France  ; 
Clement  VIII  vouchsafed  no  reply. 

When  the  three  months  truce  had  expired,  Mayenne  was 
at  a  loss  what  course  to  pursue.  He  had  neither  money  nor 
Gradual  men,  and  the  growing  impotence  of  the  League 

recognition  was  now  patent  to  all.  Its  leaders,  well  aware 
oi  Henry  IV.  of  the  fact,  and  seeing  that  their  cause  was  lost, 
dropped  off  one  by  one,  recognizing  Henry  IV  independently 
of  each  other,  and  endeavouring  to  make  the  best  of  a  hopeless 
position.  On  all  sides  negotiations  were  opened  with  the  King. 
The  least  the  Governors  of  provinces  and  towns  demanded  was 
to  be  allowed  to  retain  their  offices  ;  and  to  this  request  Henry 
IV,  ever  smiling  and  sceptical,  gave  a  ready  consent.  "  All  I 
want  is  to  get  back  the  kingdom  that  belongs  to  me,"  he  said, 
"  and  any  who  help  me  to  do  so  I  shall  recognize  as  my  ser- 
vants."    Vitry,  the  Governor  of  Meaux,  made  an  agreement 

U  305 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

with  him  on  December  24  ;  La  Chatre,  Governor  of  Orleans 
and  Bourges,  followed  suit  ;  those  Parliaments  which  still 
adhered  to  the  League  imitated  them  and  pronounced  for  Henry, 
whilst  even  the  towns  were  unwilling  to  be  left  behind.  The 
inhabitants  of  Lyons  revolted  against  their  Governor,  the  Duke 
of  Nemours,  a  member  of  the  League,  and  putting  up  barricades, 
drove  him  out  and  summoned  Monsieur  d'Ornano,  Henry  IV's 
lieutenant  in  Dauphiny,  to  take  his  place,  on  condition  that  the 
privileges  of  their  town  were  recognized — a  condition  which 
was  granted. 

Thus  the  League  gradually  drifted  towards  dissolution. 
The  press  attacked  it  with  an  ardour  all  the  more  efficacious 
inasmuch  as  it  was  now  a  question  of  completing  the  downfall 
of  the  vanquished.  It  was  at  this  juncture  that  the  Satyre 
Menippee  made  its  appearance,  an  eloquent,  vigorous  journal, 
full  of  freshness,  good  sense,  and  natural  wit,  in  the  pages  of 
which  a  few  moderate  men  succeeded  in  covering  with  ridicule 
a  turbulent  and  violent  party  which  had  exposed  itself  only 
too  freely  to  criticism.  Far  from  giving  way  as  everybody 
else  was  doing,  but  feeling,  nevertheless,  that  the  end  was  near, 
Mayenne  would  not  wait  for  it  in  Paris.  He  left  the  city  on 
March  6, 1594,  on  the  pretext  that  he  was  going  to  arrange  with 
Mansfeld  about  collecting  troops,  and  left  Monsieur  de  Brissac 
in  charge — an  extremely  injudicious  choice. 

Meanwhile,  to  the  various  elements  of  success  which  secured 
his  right  to  the  throne,  Henry  IV  now  added  yet  another, 
Coronation  ^  decisive  and  sovereign  element  ;  he  had  himself 
o£  Henry  IV,  crowned  King,  and  prevailed  upon  the  Church 
1594.  to  bestow  that  sacred  unction  which  transformed 

him  into  a  semi -religious  personage  with  quasi -pontifical  powers, 
and  constrained  Christian  consciences  to  bow  to  his  authority. 
As  it  was  impossible  for  him  to  have  the  ceremony  performed 
at  Rheims,  which  was  still  in  the  hands  of  his  enemies,  he  had  it 
celebrated  on  February  27,  1594,  in  the  ancient  cathedral  of 
Chartres,  a  church  beloved  of  his  Vendome  ancestors.  The 
choir  was  hung  with  tapestries  ;  the  bishop  was  enthroned 
beneath  a  silken  canopy  ;  the  royal  chair  placed  against  the 
rood-screen  was  surmounted  by  a  canopy  of  purple  velvet 
studded  with  gold  fleiirs  de  lis,  and  stands  set  up  in  the  choir 
306 


INTERNAL    PEACE.      HENRY    IV 

provided  seats  for  the  princesses  and  ladies  of  tlie  Court.  A 
new  sceptre,  crown,  and  main  de  justice  *  of  chased  gold  had 
been  made  for  the  occasion.  The  coronation  produced  a  pro- 
found sensation  throughout  the  country,  and  it  was  felt  that  it 
must  succeed  in  forcing  the  hand  of  the  Pope.  Brissac,  Mayenne's 
lieutenant  in  Paris,  thought  the  time  had  now  come  for  him 
to  escape  from  the  conflict  and  safeguard  his  own  interests. 
He  accordingly  negotiated  with  Lhuillier,  the  Provost  of  the 
Merchants,  Langlois,  the  Sheriff,  Mole,  the  Procurator-General, 
and  the  various  captains,  and  notified  his  conditions  to  Henry  IV, 
who  at  once  accepted  them.  On  the  date  agi'eed  upon,  the 
night  of  March  21-22,  at  four  o'clock  in  the  morning,  three 
Surrender  oJ  of  the  gates  were  opened  to  the  troops  of  the 
Paris,  1594.  King  of  France,  which,  to  the  number  of  2500 
infantry  and  1500  cavalry,  were  waiting  a  short  distance  away. 
Vitry  entered  by  the  Porte  Saint-Denis,  d'O  by  the  Porte 
Neuve,  on  the  banks  of  the  Seine,  alongside  the  Louvre  ;  and 
some  detachments  disembarked  in  the  Quartier  Saint-Paul. 
The  bridges  and  squares  were  occupied,  and  the  Parisians, 
taken  by  surprise,  made  no  resistance.  As  soon  as  it  was  light 
Henry  IV  rode  on  horseback  to  the  Porte  Neuve  where  Brissac 
received  him,  accompanied  by  the  Provost  of  the  Merchants, 
and  handed  him  the  keys  of  the  city.  He  entered  Paris  wearing 
his  helmet  and  breastplate,  the  former  adorned  by  his  great 
white  plume,  and  with  an  escort  of  500  or  600  men-at-arms  with 
pikes  in  their  hands  and  muskets  over  their  shoulders.  He 
went  to  Notre-Dame  where  he  heard  Mass,  and  then  returned 
to  the  Louvre.  Astonished  and  inquisitive  crowds  rushed  into 
the  streets  trying  to  get  a  glimpse  of  him,  but  with  no  hostile 
intention.  "  Let  them  alone,"  the  monarch  commanded  his 
soldiers,  who  wanted  to  drive  them  off,  "  they  are  eager  to  see 
a  King."  Heralds  went  through  the  streets  announcing  a 
complete  amnesty,  and  the  chm-ch  bells  rang  out  in  full  peal. 
There  was  a  festive  air  about  the  whole  proceeding,  and  the 
crowd,  completely  won  over,  shouted  "  Long  live  the  King !  * 
The  Duke  of  Feria  had  ordered  the  foreign  contingent  of  4000 
Spaniards,  Walloons,  and  Neapolitans  lent  to  the  League  by 

*  A  sort  of  sceptre  with  a  hand  at  tlie  top,  forming  part  of  the  regalia 
of  the  I^Yench  Kings.     (Tr.) 

307 


CENTURY    OF     THE    RENAISSANCE 

Philip  II  to  take  up  their  arms  and  keep  in  their  quarters. 
The  King,  however,  sent  Matignon  to  tell  him  to  send  them 
quietly  away  ;  and  on  the  same  day,  these  troops  marched  out 
by  the  Porte  Saint-Denis  with  drums  beating  and  flags  flying. 
Henry  IV  went  to  see  them  pass  from  the  top  of  the  gate,  and 
called  out,  as  he  saluted  them,  "  Gentlemen,  commend  me  to 
your  master,  but  do  not  come  back  again."  By  the  evening  all 
The  end  oi  was  quiet ;  the  Papal  Legate  had  taken  his 
the  League.  departure,  and  life  had  resumed  its  peaceful 
course.  Without  striking  a  blow,  the  League  had  melted 
away. 

The  amnesty  was  observed,  except  in  the  case  of  some 
120  monks,  preachers  and  others,  who  had  compromised  them- 
selves too  deeply,  and  were  obliged  to  leave  the  city.  The 
religious  orders  said  that  they  were  awaiting  the  decision  of 
Rome.  The  Parliament  was  reinstalled  ;  the  Sorbonne  acknow- 
ledged Henry  IV,  and  everybody  breathed  again.  "  AH  good 
citizens,"  said  Estoile,  "  of  the  middle  and  lower  classes  were 
extremely  glad  to  find  themselves  delivered  from  slavery,  and 
out  of  the  power  of  the  party  and  government  of  the  Sixteen  ; 
restored  to  liberty,  with  the  honours  and  goods  that  belonged 
to  them ;  and  freed  from  the  tjrranny  of  the  Spaniards  and 
foreigners,  which  was  regarded  by  Frenchmen  as  harsh  and 
intolerable."  When  once  Paris  had  been  won  the  rest  of  France 
followed  without  delay. 

The  various  governors  were  won  over  by  bribes  of  money 
and  honours.  "  Do  not  bargain,"  Henry  IV  told  Rosny,  who 
was  discussing  terms  with  them,  "  the  things  they  are  delivering 
up  to  us  would  cost  us  ten  times  as  much  if  we  had  to  take  them 
by  force."  Paris  had  exacted  482,000  croAvns.  At  Rouen, 
Villars  Brancas  was  given  715,000  crowns,  together  with  the 
title  of  admiral  and  the  governorship  of  seven  fortresses.  On 
March  27,  1594,  he  gathered  together  the  merchants  of  Rouen 
and  the  garrison  captains  at  a  great  dinner,  and  at  the  end  of 
the  feast  rose  and  told  them  bluntly  :  "  Gentlemen,  the  League 
has  gone  to  the  devil.  Let  us  shout  with  one  accord  '  Long  Hve 
the  King  ! '  "  And  he  thereupon  put  on  the  white  scarf.  The 
House  of  Lorraine  gave  way  one  by  one  ;  its  head,  the  Duke, 
on  November  16.  Altogether  they  cost  9,000,000  pounds, 
308 


INTERNAL  PEACE.   HENRY  IV 

which  they  extracted  as  an  indemnity  for  their  losses  during 
the  civil  wars.  Mayenne  was  the  last  to  yield,  together  with 
the  Duke  of  Mercceur  in  Brittany. 

Henry  IV  now  settled  down.  Difficulties,  however,  soon 
confronted  him  on  every  side.  He  was  besieged  by  people 
Henry  IV's  demanding  reprisals,  and  objecting  to  seeing 
difficulties.  those  who  had  stood  loyally  by  him  placed  on 
the  same  footing  as  those  who  had  gravely  compromised  them- 
selves. "  If  you  said  the  Lord's  Prayer  every  day  with  real 
sincerity,"  Henry  IV  replied,  "  you  would  not  talk  as  you  do. 
As  God  has  pardoned  me,  so  too  will  I  pardon  others.  If  there 
are  some  who  forgot  themselves,  it  is  enough  for  me  that  they 
should  return  to  their  senses.  I  wish  to  hear  no  more  about  it." 
All  his  appointments  aroused  recriminations  :  the  reinstallation 
of  Villeroy,  who  was  hated  by  Catholics  and  Protestants  aUke, 
as  minister  ;  and  the  elevation  of  the  Duke  of  Bouillon,  who 
was  a  Huguenot,  to  the  rank  of  Marshal  of  France.  Not  only 
did  the  rivalry  between  Catholics  and  heretics  continue,  but 
amongst  the  Catholics  themselves  a  confiict  now  began  between 
the  Royalist  Catholics,  who  became  advanced  Gallicans,  and  the 
Catholics  who  had  been  members  of  the  League  and  remained 
Ultramontanes.  The  Order  of  the  Jesuits  formed  one  of  the 
chief  points  at  issue.  They  were  accused  of  having  given  too 
much  support  to  Spain  and  the  League,  and  of  not  having 
acknowledged  Henry  IV  ;  they  were  still  awaiting  the  decision 
of  Rome.  The  Parliament  and  the  University  attacked  the 
Order  vigorously  upon  various  pretexts  of  minor  importance ; 
but  it  was  really  a  war  upon  principles.  On  December  27, 
1594,  a  certain  pupil  of  the  Jesuits,  a  youth  of  eighteen  named 
Jean  Chatel,  steahng  up  to  Henry  IV,  dealt  him  a  blow  with  a 
knife,  which  cut  his  lip  and  broke  two  of  his  teeth.  The  wound 
was  a  slight  one,  and  the  would-be  assassin  merely  a  fanatic. 
He  was  hanged  and  quartered,  and  the  hot-heads  tried  to  place 
the  responsibility  for  the  deed  iipon  the  Jesuits.  They  were 
accordingly  banished  by  acts  of  Parliament  from  the  confines 
of  Paris,  Rouen,  and  Grenoble.  "  The  end  of  the  year  1594," 
wrote  Estoile,  "  was  as  grievous  for  the  Parisians  as  the  spring 
had  been  full  of  rejoicings  ;    for  Chatel's  attempt  filled  them 

309 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

with  fear  of  future  misfortunes,  and  tightened  their  purse- 
strings,  cooled  the  enterprise  of  the  merchants,  and  plunged 
them,  together  with  the  people,  into  fresh  poverty."  Moreover 
further  troubles  were  threatening.  In  default  of  a  direct  heir — 
for  Henry  IV  had  no  children  by  Margaret  of  Valois — the 
throne  reverted  to  his  nephew,  the  Prince  of  Conde,  another 
Protestant,  a  fact  which  irritated  the  Catholics.  The  Pro- 
testants were  displeased  at  the  King's  recantation,  and 
altogether  the  horizon  was  dark  and  lowering. 

In  order  to  clear  it  Henry  IV  decided  to  make  war  upon 
Spain,  and  drive  out  the  Spaniards  from  French  territory.  By 
this  means  he  would  win  victories  which  would  consolidate 
his  position,  he  would  give  occupation  to  the  martial  lust  of 
the  nobility,  and  deprive  the  Leaguers  of  their  last  vestige  of 
support.  Philip  II  accepted  the  conflict,  and  dispatched  the 
Count  of  Fuentes  at  the  head  of  an  army.  Henry  IV,  marching 
against  the  troops  commanded  by  Mayenne  and  Velasco,  fell 
Battle  of  ^^    with    them    near    Saint-Seine,    at    Fontaine- 

Fontaine-  Frangaise,  and  had  the  boldness  to  attack  a  body 

Franyaise,  of  1200  cavahy  with  a  force  of  only  300.  A  fierce 

^^^^'  fight  took  place,  in  which  he  narrowly  escaped 

with  his  life  ;  but  fortunately  for  him,  Velasco,  thinking  that 
he  had  to  deal  with  a  far  larger  body  of  troops,  retreated.  "  A 
little  more,  and  you  would  have  become  my  heir,"  Henry  IV 
afterwards  wrote  to  his  sister  Catherine.  He  had  run  an 
extremely  grave  risk.  This  engagement,  which  was  insignificant 
as  far  as  the  numbers  which  took  part  in  it  were  concerned, 
produced  the  effect  of  a  great  victory.  Mayenne,  thoroughly 
discouraged,  asked  for  a  truce  in  order  to  negotiate,  and  in 
Rome,  Clement  VIII,  who  had  already  been  shaken  by  the 
King's  general  success  in  his  own  country,  consented  to 
discuss  a  reconciliation.  D'Ossat  and  du  Perron,  in  whom 
Henry  IV  had  great  confidence,  and  whom  he  had  sent  to  Rome 
to  replace  Gondi,  conducted  the  negotiation.  The  consistory 
of  Cardinals  before  whom  the  matter  was  debated  pronounced 
in  favoiu?  of  the  reconciliation.  Seven  conditions  were  insisted 
upon :  the  absolution  granted  by  the  bishops  was  to  be  null 
and  void,  though  the  King's  subsequent  acts  were  to  be  valid  ; 
thel  Prince  of  Cond6  was  to  be  brought  up  in  the  Catholic 
310 


INTERNAL    PEACE.      HENRY    IV 

religion ;  the  decrees  of  the  Council  of  Trent  were  to  be  published ; 
and  all  Church  property  that  had  been  stolen  was  to  be  given 
back.  On  September  17,  1595,  Clement  VIII  decided  to  pro- 
claim his  decree  of  absolution  ;  and  from  that  day,  French 
CathoUcs  had  no  further  excuse  for  refusing  allegiance  to 
Henry  IV. 

Mayenne  realized  this,  and  at  length  offered  to  treat  with 
him.  He  demanded  three  towns  as  guarantees  ;  the  governor- 
ship of  the  He  de  France  ;  the  payment  of  his  debts — which 
were  numerous,  on  account  of  the  expenses  of  the  war  ;  an 
official  declaration  that  he  was  innocent  of  the  blood  of  Henry 
III,  for  the  King  had  announced  his  intention  of  prosecuting 
those  responsible  for  the  murder  of  his  predecessor  ;  and  an 
acknowledgment  that  he  was  negotiating  in  the  name  of  the 
League.  Henry  IV  made  some  objections  over  the  matter 
of  the  debts,  but  he  finally  gave  way  on  all  the  points.  After 
the  treaty  had  been  signed  at  Folembray  in  January,  1596,  an 
interview  took  place  between  the  King  and  the  Duke  in  the 
park  of  the  Chateau  de  Montceaux.  Henry  IV  was  cordial 
and  charming,  and  showed  his  old  enemy  over  the  garden, 
making  him  walk  about  quickly  for  a  long  time.  Mayenne, 
who  was  big  and  fat  and  afflicted  with  sciatica,  was  streaming 
with  perspiration,  and  suffering  agonies.  Henry  IV  noticed 
it,  and  whispered  in  Rosny's  ear :  "  If  I  lead  this  fat  lump  a 
long  enough  dance  I  shall  have  my  revenge  without  much 
difficulty  for  all  the  ill  he  has  done  us  ;  for  he  will  be  a  dead 
man."  Then  turning  to  Mayenne,  he  said  :  "  I  am  walking  a 
little  too  fast  for  you  ;  I  have  worked  you  too  hard.  Come 
now,  shake  hands,  this  is  the  only  evil  and  inconvenience  you 
will  ever  have  to  suffer  from  me." 

Joyeuse  came  to  terms  on  January  24  in  return  for  his 
appointment  as  Marshal  and  Lieutenant  of  Languedoc.  The 
Duke  of  Aumale  preferred  to  leave  the  country.  Henry  IV 
welcomed  all  who  came  to  him  with  outstretched  hand.  He 
was  anxious  to  secure  peace  at  home  in  order  to  complete  his 
expulsion  of  the  Spaniards. 

The  latter  held  their  ground.  They  had  taken  Calais  and 
Saint-Quentin.  On  March  10,  1597,  the  alarming  news  arrived 
that  they  had  suddenly  pushed  forward  and  surprised  Amiens, 

311 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

sending  soldiers  disguised  as  peasants  to  seize  one  of  the  gates, 
and  had  installed  a  force  of  5000  infantry  and  700  cavalry  in 
that  town.  With  the  enemy  masters  of  the  course  of  the 
Somme,  Paris  lay  open  to  attack.  At  every  epoch  in  French 
history  news  of  this  sort  had  filled  the  Parisians  with  consterna- 
tion. Everybody,  and  more  particularly  Henry  IV  himself, 
was  deeply  perturbed.  He  sprang  on  his  horse  and  departed 
forthwith  for  Amiens,  summoning  to  his  support  the  ban  and 
rear-ban  of  the  country.  The  siege  which  he  undertook  lasted 
for  six  months,  and  cost  eight  millions,  which  had  to  be  raised 
by  means  of  lamentable  expedients.  But  at  last,  on  September 
25,  1597,  the  town  surrendered.  The  success  was  as  brilliant 
as  the  check  had  been  mortifying.  Henry  IV  seized  the  oppor- 
tunity to  endeavour  to  end  the  war  with  this  victory,  and  the 
Papal  Legate  offered  his  mediation,  which  the  King  accepted. 
Peace  o!  Peace  was  discussed  and  negotiations  conducted 

Vervins,  1598.  at  Vervins  from  February  to  May,  1598.  On 
May  5  a  treaty  was  signed.  Spain,  completely  tired  out, 
consented  to  give  back  all  she  had  won,  with  the  exception 
of  Cambray,  which  she  kept.  On  September  15  in  the  same  year 
Philip  II  died,  calm  and  impassive  as  ever,  slowly  consumed 
by  a  lingering  disease  at  the  age  of  seventy-one.  His  ambition 
had  been  greater  than  his  resources,  and  its  frustration  in 
France  had  been  as  complete  as  its  aims  had  been  extravagant. 
All  cause  for  fear  from  the  direction  of  Madrid  was  now  at  an 
end. 

There  still  remained  two  or  three  districts  in  France  in 
which  the  fire  had  not  been  extinguished,  and  these  Henry  IV 
hastened  to  pacify.  Amongst  them  was  Brittany,  where  the 
Duke  of  Mercceur,  the  brother  of  Queen  Louise  of  Vaudemont 
and  brother-in-law  of  Henry  III,  was  maintaining  his  inde- 
pendence, declaring  that  in  default  of  a  direct  heir  to  Anne 
of  Brittany  he  considered  that  as  he  had  married  an  heiress 
he  had  a  right  to  claim  the  succession.  But  the  King  of  Spain 
alleged  an  even  stronger  claim  to  the  Duchy,  and  Henry  IV 
accordingly  sent  troops  who  captured  Dinan.  Mercceur  gave 
way,  and  it  was  arranged  that  the  King  of  France  should  pay 
his  debts,  and  that  one  of  Henry  IV's  natural  sons,  C6sar,  Duke 
of  Vendome,  a  child  of  four,  should  marry  Mercoeur's  six-year- 
312 


INTERNAL    PEACE.      HENRY    IV 

old  daughter  and  become  Duke  of  Brittany.  And  thus  this 
matter  was  arranged. 

But  there  was  yet  another — the  question  of  the  Duke  of 
Savoy,  who  ever  since  the  time  when  he  had  tried  to  turn  the 
troubles  of  the  League  to  account  in  order  to  snatch  some  French 
territory,  had  remained  in  a  state  of  war.  The  Duke,  Charles 
Emmanuel,  an  ambitious,  quarrelsome  and  deceitful  prince, 
had  cast  a  covetous  eye  upon  Dauphiny  and  the  Marquisate 
of  Saluces.  Lesdigui^res  had  prevented  him  from  seizing  the 
former  province,  and  Charles  Emmanuel  had  consoled  himself 
with  the  second.  Henry  IV  informed  him  that  he  would  allow 
him  to  keep  Saluces  on  condition  that  he  gave  up  Bresse,  Bugey, 
and  Valromey,  at  that  time  in  the  possession  of  Savoy.  As  the 
Duke  vouchsafed  no  reply,  Henry  IV  collected  30,000  men  in 
1600,  marched  on  Chambery,  and  after  a  short  and  brilliant 
campaign  concluded  a  peace  on  his  own  terms.  By  this  peace 
France  definitively  acquired  Bresse,  Bugey,  Valromey,  and  the 
district  of  Gex. 

And  now  at  last  all  trouble  with  enemies  abroad  and  armed 
foes  at  home  was  at  an  end.  Slowly,  step  by  step,  with  ad- 
End  o!  the  mirable  patience,  tenacity  of  purpose,  and  steadi- 
war.  ness,  Henry  IV  had  succeeded  in  pacifying  his 

kingdom.  It  had  required  time  and  flexibility,  but  now  his 
end  had  been  attained.  Only  half  his  task,  however,  was 
accomplished.  Now  that  all  swords  had  been  sheathed,  the 
work  of  repairing  the  harm  they  had  done  remained  to  be 
carried  out,  or  at  all  events  the  restoration  of  some  sort  of  order 
and  the  consolidation  of  a  peace  which  was  still  precarious  after 
so  many  years  of  war  and  violence.  The  country  had  yet  to 
be  induced  to  take  up  or  return  quietly  to  the  ordinary  daily 
occupations  of  an  industrious  people  secure  from  alarms. 
Henry  IV  applied  himself  resolutely  to  this  task,  in  which  he 
was  powerfully  supported  by  his  friend  and  companion-in-arms, 
a  Huguenot  noble  who  consecrated  all  his  talents  and  energies 
to  his  King — Monsieur  de  Rosny,  Duke  of  Sully. 

A  man  of  about  the  same  age  as  Henry  IV,  devoted  and 
steadfast,  Rosny  combined  a  sure  judgment  and  a  clear  mind 
Sully.  with  an  extraordinary  capacity  for  work.     As  an 

administrator  he  was  unsurpassed  ;  always  busy,  going  through 

313 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

papers,  allowing  nothing  to  escape  his  attention,  he  directed 
business  with  inexorable  severity.  He  was  a  rough  diamond,  a 
big  fierce  man,  with  a  bald  forehead,  a  long  beard  and  steely 
glance,  who  lived  all  by  himself  in  the  Arsenal  in  an  austerely 
furnished  room  adorned  with  portraits  of  Luther  and  Calvin. 
He  never  ceased  working,  received  people  with  intolerable 
rudeness,  without  getting  up  or  asking  them  to  be  seated,  and 
constantly  refused  to  do  as  he  was  asked.  "  He  is  a  beast," 
said  one  ambassador ;  "a  groom "  added  another ;  "an 
animal  "  declared  a  third.  But  he  rendered  the  King  invaluable 
services,  more  especially  in  the  domain  of  finance. 

These  finances  were  in  a  terrible  state  of  confusion.  The 
one  thing  which  seemed  clear  to  Henry  IV  was  that  he  had 
a  great  many  debts  and  never  any  money.  "  I  am  reduced 
to  such  straits,"  he  wrote  one  day  to  Rosny,  "that  I  have 
scarcely  a  horse  on  which  I  can  ride  into  battle,  nor  a  complete 
suit  of  armour  to  my  back  ;  my  shirts  are  in  rags,  my  doublets 
out  at  elbows,  my  pots  are  often  empty,  and  for  two  days  past 
I  have  been  dining  and  supping  with  one  or  other  of  my  friends." 
In  contrast  to  his  own  peniu'y,  he  saw  with  surprise  "  that  the 
treasurers  of  his  finances  kept  dainty  and  well-served  boards, 
and  that  their  houses  were  full  of  wealth  and  luxury."  Robbery 
and  brigandage  were  not  the  sole  explanation  of  this  anomaly. 
There  were  causes  accounting  for  it  connected  with  the  financial 
organization  of  the  period,  by  virtue  of  which  the  King  had 
pledged  all  his  revenues  and  was  left  without  a  penny,  whilst 
in  the  meantime  the  taxes  were  collected  under  the  ordinary 
advantageous  conditions  enjoyed  by  the  financiers.  Deter- 
mined as  he  said  "  to  cut  off  Dame  Peculation's  arms  and 
legs,"  the  King  turned  to  his  rugged  friend,  Monsieur  de  Rosny, 
though  the  latter  did  not  know  much  about  finance.  After 
the  death  of  Superintendent  d'O  in  1594,  Henry  IV  replaced 
his  office  by  a  financial  committee  of  nine,  and  in  1596  he 
appointed  Monsieur  de  Rosny  a  member  of  this  board.  Eager 
to  set  to  work,  Rosny  suggested  making  a  rigorous  examina- 
tion into  the  whole  financial  administration  of  the  country, 
and  set  out  in  person  to  inspect  the  districts  of  four  receivers- 
general  that  very  year.  He  was  terrifying ;  he  hustled  the 
receivers,  asked  to  see  title-deeds,  registers  and  receipts.  He 
314 


INTERNAL  PEACE.   HENRY  IV 

examined  leases,  and — if  we  are  to  believe  his  Economies 
royales,  which,  is,  it  must  be  remembered,  a  written  apo- 
logia, to  be  accepted  with  caution — on  his  own  responsibility 
he  cancelled  doubtful  claims,  dismissed  agents,  cut  down 
expenditure  which  he  regarded  as  unnecessary,  and,  when  he 
had  accomplished  this,  brought  back,  still  according  to  his 
own  account,  a  surplus  of  500,000  crowns,  sufficient  to  fill  seventy 
waggons.  It  was  a  large  sum.  There  was  a  general  outcry. 
His  colleagues  exclaimed  that  he  did  not  understand  what  he 
was  doing,  and  accused  him  of  wholesale  pillage,  declaring  that 
the  money  must  be  returned  and  that  he  had  acted  like  an 
impetuous  soldier  rather  than  a  qualified  financier.  There 
was  some  truth  in  these  assertions.  In  order  to  form  a  clear 
notion  of  what  was  required,  Henry  IV  convoked  an  assembly 
of  Notables  at  Rouen  in  November,  1596,  not  daring  to  summon 
the  States-General,  which  would  have  been  too  dangerous. 

These  Notables  were  eighty  in  number.  They  were  elected 
by  the  provinces,  and  consisted  of  nine  ecclesiastics,  nineteen 
Assembly  of  nobles,  and  fifty-two  members  of  the  third  estate. 
Notables,  1596.  At  the  opening  of  the  session  Henry  IV  made  a 
celebrated  speech,  full  of  good  sense  and  of  witty  French 
vivacity  :  "  You  know  to  your  own  cost,"  he  said,  "  as  I  do  to 
mine,  that  when  God  called  me  to  the  throne,  I  found  France 
not  only  half  ruined  but  almost  lost  altogether  to  the  French 
nation.  ...  I  have  not  summoned  you,  as  my  predecessors 
used  to  do,  to  make  you  approve  my  desires.  I  have  summoned 
you  to  ask  your  advice,  which  I  wish  to  believe  and  to  follow  ; 
in  short,  to  place  myself  in  your  hands  for  guidance,  a  course 
rarely  palatable  to  Kings,  greybeards,  and  victors.  Yet  the 
ardent  love  I  bear  my  subjects,  and  the  great  longing  I  feel 
to  add  two  fair  titles  to  my  name — those  of  liberator  and  re- 
storer of  this  State — make  all  this  easy  and  honourable  in  my 
eyes."  The  Chancellor  then  proceeded  to  state  the  financial 
situation.  It  was  simple  enough — quantities  of  debts.  Sully 
said  296  million  pounds — and  no  credit.  The  gross  receipts  were 
twenty-three  million  pounds  per  annum,  of  which  the  provincial 
administration  absorbed  sixteen  millions  as  necessary  expen- 
diture, leaving  the  rest — the  absolutely  inadequate  sum  of 
seven  millions — to  the  Government  for  central  expenses.     The 

315 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

Notables  were  of  opinion  that  the  existing  taxes  might  be 
raised  without  having  recourse  to  loans  or  the  creation  of  new 
offices  to  be  put  up  for  sale — ^there  were  too  many  of  these 
already.  According  to  the  details  of  offers  that  had  already 
been  made,  there  would  be  a  revenue  of  thirty  millions, 
fifteen  of  which  would  suffice  for  the  provincial  administration, 
and  fifteen  for  the  central  government.  Sully  maintains  that 
the  Notables  went  even  further,  and  demanded  that  a  council 
named  the  advisory  council  should  be  nominated  by  themselves 
to  control  the  expenditure  of  at  least  the  fifteen  millions  devoted 
to  the  provinces  ;  and  that  Henry  IV  agreed  to  the  appointment 
of  this  council  because  he  considered  it  would  strengthen  the 
credit  of  the  State  and  put  a  somewhat  stricter  check  upon 
the  administrators  of  the  revenue.  But  the  truth  of  this 
statement  has  been  disputed. 

Little  by  little  Henry  IV  allowed  himself  to  be  won  over  by 
Rosny's  rigorous  notions.  He  was  himself,  as  a  matter  of  fact, 
naturally  somewhat  inclined  to  be  avaricious.  He  ended  by 
establishing  a  sort  of  financial  superintendency,  a  post  which 
Rosny  seems  to  have  filled  in  1598,  and  the  official  title  of  which 
was  bestowed  upon  him  in  1601.  In  1599  the  new  superinten- 
dent took  up  his  quarters  at  the  Arsenal,  and  in  addition  to 
this  office,  was  also  made  Superintendent  of  Artillery,  Public 
Buildings,  and  Fortifications.  An  extremely  hard  working 
man,  he  wished  to  undertake  all  he  could,  both  out  of  zeal 
for  the  public  good  and  from  a  desire  to  apply  his  precise  and 
splenetic  methods  in  as  many  directions  as  possible. 

To  make  the  taxes  bring  in  as  much  as  could  be  raised 
with  little  incidental  expense  ;  to  institute  rigid  economies  ; 
Sully's  policy,  to  pay  off  most  of  the  debts  or  diminish  them 
by  every  kind  of  contrivance  ;  and,  finally,  to  put  money 
aside,  was  the  programme  that  Rosny  traced  out  for  himself. 
He  conceived  no  new  ideas  in  financial  matters,  he  merely 
utilized  methods  already  existing.  It  is  incorrect  to  say 
that  the  keeping  of  public  accounts  at  this  period  was  in 
an  embryonic  condition,  and  that  any  individual  connected 
with  them  could  enrich  himself  at  his  leisure  in  the  dark  jungle 
of  taxation.  There  were  regulations,  the  observance  of  which 
was  controlled  by  the  Court  of  the  Exchequer  more  strictly 
316 


INTERNAL  PEACE.   HENRY  IV 

than  is  generally  imagined.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  if  we  leave 
out  of  the  reckoning  the  bad  returns  of  the  taille,  it  was 
owing  to  a  thousand  and  one  decisions  which  were  correct 
enough,  but  ruinous  in  their  results,  that  the  money  produced 
by  the  taxes  found  its  way  into  the  pockets  of  clever  agents. 
The  taxes,  like  the  aids,  were  farmed  out  separately  on  relatively 
low  terms.  Rosny  sold  them  by  auction  to  a  single  tax-farmer, 
Monsieur  Jean  de  Moisset,  for  a  much  more  advantageous  sum  ; 
and  in  the  same  way  he  increased  the  amount  paid  by  the  five 
great  farmers-general.  In  cases  where  a  given  annual  sum  was 
due  to  a  man,  he  had  hitherto  simply  been  exempted  from  the 
payment  of  some  State  claim  upon  him,  and  this  exempted 
claim  always  represented  a  far  larger  sum  than  the  one  to  which 
he  had  a  right.  Rosny  had  these  alienated  dues  restored  to 
the  State.  There  were  quantities  of  them,  and  the  property 
of  the  Crown  had  been  dismembered  by  this  process.  The 
persons  concerned,  who  were  chiefly  great  nobles,  remonstrated  ; 
but  the  surly  minister  took  no  notice  and  merely  told  them  that 
they  would  be  paid  in  a  different  way.  The  debts,  above  all, 
were  overwhelming.  On  every  side  money  was  owing  to  all 
manner  of  people  both  at  home  and  abroad,  for  Henry  IV  had 
inherited  liabilities  incurred  by  the  kings  his  predecessors  during 
the  civil  wars.  To  the  Duke  of  Tuscany  alone  a  sum  of  1,100,000 
crowns  was  owing,  and  the  Grand-Duke,  in  default  of  payment, 
had  seized  the  Chateau  d'lf  opposite  Marseilles,  as  security, 
a  humiliation  to  which  Henry  IV  had  been  obliged  to  submit. 
Arrangements  were  made  whereby  these  debts  were  to  be  paid 
off  in  regular  yearly  instalments.  In  the  case  of  the  King's  own 
subjects  Rosny  made  use  of  more  expeditious  methods.  Amongst 
other  liabilities,  sixty  millions  of  arrears  in  interest  on  state 
securities  were  due.  The  minister  declared  that  as  the  titles 
of  these  creditors  were  not  very  clear,  he  wished  to  revise  them. 
He  then  lowered  the  interest  from  8^  per  cent  .to  6|  per  cent. 
An  outcry  was  immediately  raised  that  he  was  acting  arbitrarily 
and  that  the  State  was  bankrupt ;  whereupon  Henry  IV, 
threatened  by  an  insurrection  among  the  investors,  was  obliged 
to  ask  Rosny  to  be  less  drastic.  This,  however,  did  not  prevent 
the  latter  from  reducing  the  royal  debts  by  100  millions  of 
capital.     By  a  series  of  similar  measures,  and  above  all  by 

317 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

opposing  largesse  of  any  sort,  and  by  severe  economy  in  ex- 
penditure, a  method  which  the  minister  called  "  wonderful 
housekeeping,"  the  Government  in  the  end  not  only  succeeded 
in  balancing  its  budget,  but  put  aside  enough  money  to  stock 
the  Arsenal  with  provisions  for  war,  and  placed  a  surplus  of 
thirteen  millions  in  the  Bastille. 

When  once  the  financial  difficulties  had  been  overcome, 
Henry  IV  and  Rosny,  who  had  been  made  Duke  of  Sully  in 
Agriculture.  1606,  set  to  work  to  ameliorate  the  condition 
of  the  people.  The  importance  of  the  reforms  they  carried 
out  in  the  domain  of  agriculture,  conunerce,  and  public  works 
must  not  be  exaggerated.  Their  chief  merit  lay  in  the  fact 
that  they  put  an  end  to  war,  and  allowed  the  people  to  work 
in  peace.  Sully  said,  "  Husbandry  and  the  care  of  cattle  are 
the  two  udders  of  France."  But,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  he  did 
not  do  much  to  alter  the  conditions  of  agriculture.  In  1595 
Henry  IV  decreed  that  agricultural  implements  and  live-stock 
could  not  be  seized  in  payment  of  debt ;  in  so  doing,  however, 
he  merely  revived  ancient  ordinances  which  were  destined  to 
be  re-enacted  again  after  his  day.  The  peasantry  owed  twenty 
millions  in  arrears  for  taille,  and  in  1600  the  King  cancelled 
this  sum,  a  sacrifice  for  which  he  has  been  praised,  but  which 
was  inspired,  amongst  other  considerations,  by  the  fact  that  he 
would  never  have  been  able  to  recover  the  money.  Between 
1597  and  1609,  Henry  IV  lowered  the  taille  from  twenty  to 
fourteen  millions,  for  which  he  deserves  greater  credit ;  and 
he  accepted  the  offers  made  by  the  Dutch  to  drain  certain 
marsh  lands.  His  predecessors  and  successors,  however,  did 
the  same.  Above  all  he  studied  Olivier  de  Serres'  book,  Le 
Theatre  (T Agriculture,  which  was  published  during  his  reign 
and  had  a  great  success.  This  book  taught  scientific  methods 
and  suggested  new  objects  of  cultivation  such  as  the  mulberry. 
Naturally  easy  and  cordial,  Henry  IV  took  a  delight  in  talking 
to  the  peasants.  He  loved  them,  and  would  have  liked  to  see 
each  of  them  with  "  a  fowl  in  his  pot  on  Sundays." 

In  the  domain  of  commerce,  Henry  IV  encouraged  a  political 
economist  of  interesting  ideas,  a  certain  Barthelemy  de  Laffemas, 
Commerce.  to  whom  he  lent  a  willing  ear  and  whom  he  made 
Controller-General  of  Trade.  Laffemas  asserted  that  a  country 
318 


INTERNA  LPEACE.      HENRY    IV 

should  endeavour  to  be  self-supporting,  that  it  should  produce  all 
the  manufactured  goods  it  requires,  and  not  import  them  from 
abroad.  It  was  on  his  advice,  that  after  the  cultivation  of  the 
mulberry  had  become  widespread,  the  Government  promoted 
the  establishment  of  factories  for  silk-spinning  and  the  manu- 
facture of  silks  and  cloths  of  gold  and  silver  ;  and  encouraged 
and  protected  the  creation  of  glass  and  crystal  works,  carpet 
factories,  wrought  leather  work  and  the  weaving  of  fine  Flanders 
linen.  The  importation  of  all  similar  wares  was  prohibited. 
This  was  an  attempt  at  a  policy  of  protection  before  the  time 
of  Colbert.  A  Board  of  Trade  established  at  Paris,  in  the 
Palais,  examined  any  proposals  submitted  to  it  by  private 
individuals,  and  either  recommended  them  to  the  King  or 
rejected  them. 

In  connexion  with  public  works,  Rosny,  who  was  made 
Chief  Inspector  in  1599,  improved  the  roads,  began  the  paving 
Public  works,  of  the  highways  round  Paris — a  work  which  Louis 
XIII  subsequently  continued — and  planted  great  elms  along 
them  which  for  a  long  time  afterwards  were  called  by  his  name. 
He  conceived  a  plan  for  the  construction  of  canals,  notably 
those  which  were  to  join  the  Loire  and  the  Seine — the  Briare 
Canal — the  building  of  which  he  undertook,  and  the  Atlantic  with 
the  Mediterranean — the  Canal  du  Midi  in  Languedoc — the 
idea  of  which  he  worked  out.  In  a  general  way  he  helped  to 
restore  the  ravages  caused  by  the  civil  wars — broken  bridges 
and  fallen  walls.  To  make  good  all  that  had  been  destroyed, 
however,  time  was  required,  even  during  the  next  reign.  All 
these  works  are  evidences  of  good  administration. 

Under  Henry  IV  attempts  were  made  at  colonization  and 
transatlantic  commerce.  An  East  India  company  was  created  in 
Colonization.  1604 ;  and  settlements  were  made  in  Canada  about 
the  same  time  by  des  Monts  and  Champlain,  enterprises  which 
were  repeated  in  1608  because  the  first  efforts  had  been  failures. 
Champlain  was  eventually  to  found  Quebec,  conquer  the  Red 
Indians,  and  explore  the  great  lakes.  The  Government  of 
Henry  IV  granted  these  persons  the  privileges  and  the  letters 
patent  for  which  they  asked,  as  did  his  successors,  and  as  his 
predecessors  would  have  done  in  like  circumstances. 

In  the  domain  of  the  moral  and  religious  interests  of  the 

319 


CENTURY    OF   THE    RENAISSANCE 

country  the  work  accomplished  by  Henry  IV  was  much  greater. 
Religious  Owing  to  diverse  circumstances,  it  showed  a  very 

policy  o£  different  degree  of  brilliance,  duration,  and  scope. 

Henry  IV.  The  problem  was  to  induce  Catholics  and  Pro- 

testants to  live  side  by  side  in  a  spirit  of  mutual  toleration,  and 
Henry  IV  laid  the  foundations  of  a  policy  destined  to  last  nearly 
a  century. 

At  the  request  of  the  ardent  Catholics,  the  King  allowed  the 
Jesuits  to  return  in  1603.  The  Huguenots  and  the  magistrates 
were  opposed  to  this,  objecting  that  the  order  belonged  to  the 
League  and  was  Ultramontane  and  Spanish.  Henry  IV  wittily 
replied  that  the  Jesuits  had  only  to  be  allowed  to  return  to 
France  in  order  to  become  French  ;  that  if  they  had  belonged 
to  the  League,  so  had  many  others  ;  that,  taking  it  all  in  all, 
he  preferred  to  have  them  as  friends  rather  than  enemies  ;  and 
that  he  meant  to  be  master.  In  spite  of  the  remonstrances  of 
the  Parliament,  the  Jesuits,  on  taking  an  oath  of  fealty,  were 
allowed  to  return.  Their  colleges  were  re-opened,  and  Henry 
IV  even  founded  a  new  one — the  College  de  la  Fleche. 

With  regard  to  the  Protestants  a  statute  was  absolutely 
necessary.  It  is  true  that  the  struggle  which  had  lasted  for 
thirty  years  spreading  from  town  to  town  by  means  of  sudden 
attacks,  surprises,  and  massacres  in  the  open  country,  had  ceased, 
but  the  uneasiness  among  the  Huguenots  was  universal.  What 
was  to  be  their  lot  ?  The  Edict  of  Poitiers  was,  it  is  true, 
operative.  But  if  the  King  were  to  die  and  another  monarch 
less  well  disposed  towards  them  were  to  succeed  to  the  throne, 
what  would  become  of  them  ?  They  thought  of  choosing  a 
leader,  but  Henry  IV  forbade  them  to  do  so.  In  1594  they 
elected  representatives,  who  met  together,  divided  up  France 
into  nine  circles,  and  organized  these  circles  into  a  kind  of 
republic  ;  they  then  discussed  the  advisability  of  taking  up 
arms.  This  angered  Henry  IV,  but  eventually,  on  the  advice 
of  the  moderates  headed  by  du  Plessis  Mornay,  they  asked  the 
King  to  make  their  position  secure  by  means  of  a  clear  and 
decisive  edict.  Henry  IV  hastened  to  grant  their  request,  and 
The  Edict  o£  on  April  13, 1598,  he  published  the  edict  which  was 
Nantes,  1598.  to  bear  in  history  the  famous  name  of  the  Edict 
of  Nantes.  In  ninety-five  general  articles  and  fifty-six  special 
820 


INTERNAL  PEACE.   HENRY  IV 

clauses,  Henry  IV  decided  that  the  Protestants  were  to  enjoy 
full  and  entire  liberty  of  conscience.     They  were  to  have  the 
right  of  practising  their  religion  at  two  places  in  every  bailiwick, 
with  the  exception  of  Paris  and  the  large  towns,  where  services 
were  to  be   held    outside  the  gates — in  the  case  of  Paris  at 
Charenton.     They  were  to  be  eligible  for  all  offices  ;   they  were 
to  have  a  special  chamber  called  the  Edict  Chamber  in  every 
Parliament,  in  which  Huguenot  cases  were  to  be  tried.     They 
were  to  be  allowed  to  hold  synods — the  Parliaments  stipulated 
that  these  synods  should  only  be  held  by  special  permission, 
and  with  certain  prescribed  formalities.     For  a  period  of  eight 
years  the  King  was  to  leave  over  200  towns  in  the  hands  of  the 
Protestants  as  security  for  his  word  and  was  to  maintain  the 
garrisons  in  these  places.     And  finally,  an  unexpected  favour, 
he  was  to  pay   the  salaries  of  the  Protestant  ministers  and 
subsidize  Protestant  colleges.     This  was  the  Edict  of  Poitiers 
over  again  with  added  advantages,  and  it  had  the  merit  of 
consecrating  toleration  in  the  eyes  of  Europe  at  a  time  when 
no  country.  Catholic  or  Protestant,  practised  that  virtue.     It 
had  the  further  merit  of  lasting  for  eighty-seven  years,  when 
it  was  revoked  by  an  act  of  Louis  XIV  which  caused  great 
excitement,  and  brought  the  political  prudence  of  Henry  IV 
into  even  stronger  relief.     It  was  not  carried  without  violent 
opposition  on  the  part  of  the  Catholics,  who  protested  against 
the  privileges  by  which  their  adversaries  were  practically  re- 
warded ;  and  on  the  part  of  the  Parliaments,  which  pleaded  that 
the  laws  were  violated  by  the  articles  of  the  edict.     But  Henry 
IV  stood  his  ground.     He  had  the  magistrates  summoned  to 
him.    "  I  pray  you,  register  the  edict,"  he  said  to  them.     "  What 
I  have  done,  I  have  done  in  the  interests  of  peace,  which  I  have 
succeeded  in  establishing  abroad  and  now  wish  to  establish 
within   my  kingdom.     You    owe    me  obedience.  ...  I  have 
scaled  the  walls  of  cities  and  can  easily  scale  barricades.     Do 
not  take  your  stand  on  the  Catholic  religion.     I  love  it  better 
than  you  do.     I  am  more  Catholic  than  you.     I  am  the  eldest 
son  of  the  Church,  which  none  of  you  are  or  can  ever  be.     You 
are  mistaken  if  you  imagine  you  stand  well  with  the  Pope.     I 
am  on  far  better  terms  with  him  than  you  are.     Once  let  me  take 
it  in  hand,  and  I  will  have  you  all  declared  heretics  for  refusing 

X  321 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

to  obey  me."     His  speech  was  admirable  in  its  brief  and  natural 
vivacity,  full  of  sense  and  reason.     Parliament  gave  way. 

We  see  the  opposition  with  which  Henry  IV  met  in  the 
passing  of  his  best  measures.  It  is  a  mistake  to  imagine  that 
he  was  popular  during  his  lifetime.  Popularity  only  came  to 
him  after  his  death.  Throughout  his  reign  his  contemporaries 
were  above  all  alive  to  his  faults — among  those  with  which  he 
has  been  most  severely  reproached,  were  his  avarice  and  his 
forgetfulness  of  services  rendered  him.  He  was  also  greatly 
blamed  for  his  disorderly  life,  for  the  general  discontent  and  the 
complaints  that  were  everywhere  rife.  And,  indeed,  it  must 
be  confessed  that  his  private  existence  gave  some  ground  for 
the  bitter  remarks  of  the  people  he  scandalized. 

Henry  IV  had  no  children  by  Margaret  of  Valois  and  was 

separated  from  her.     After  several  other  intrigues  he  fell  in 

Gabrielle  love  with  Gabrielle  d'Estrees,  a  lovely  young  girl 

d'Estrees.  of  twenty,  fair,  sweet,  and  graceful.     For  a  long 

time,  distressed  at  having  no  direct  heir,  he  had  been  considering 

the  possibility  of  having  his  marriage  with  Margaret  of  Valois 

annulled,  and  marrying  again.     His  ministers  and  friends  urged 

him  to  do  so  ;    and  Margaret,  who  was  of  an  easy  disposition, 

gave  her  consent.     But  when  Henry  IV  thereupon  suggested 

that  he  should  marry  Gabrielle  d'Estrees,  whom  he  had  created 

Marchioness  of  Beaufort,  lovable  and  amiable  though  Gabrielle 

may  have  been,  the  disconcerting  idea  called  forth  universal 

protest.     The  King  of  France  owed  a  very  different  marriage 

to  the  dignity  of  his  position.     The  Pope  informed  him  that 

he  would  never  consent  to  annul  his  first  marriage  for  the 

realization   of  such   a   project.     The   ministers   and   Margaret 

herself  were  violently  opposed  to  it.     At  this  juncture  Gabrielle 

d'Estrees  died  very  suddenly  in  Paris,  on  April  10,  1599,  at  the 

age  of  twenty-five.     Poison  was  hinted  at,  but  she  probably 

merely  succumbed  to   puerperal  convulsions  in  giving  birth 

to   a   still-born   child.     Her    disappearance   from  the   horizon 

simplified  matters.     For  some  time  past,  ever  since  1592,  the 

project  of  a  marriage  between  Henry  IV  and  Marie  de'  Medici, 

the  niece  of  the  Grand  Duke  of  Tuscany,  had  been  discussed. 

In  the  eyes  of  the  ministers  this  alliance  had,   among  other 

advantages,  the  fact  that  her  dowry  would  serve  to  pay  all, 

322 


INTERNAL  PEACE.  HENRY  IV 

or  part  of  the  debts  which  the  King  of  France  had  contracted 
to  the  masters  of  Florence  during  the  last  civil  wars.  The 
death  of  Gabrielle  allowed  the  negotiations  for  this  match  to 
be  renewed.  Henry  IV,  however,  swiftly  fell  a  victim  to  a  new 
Henriette  passion,  inspired  by  Henriette  d'Entraigues,  after- 

d'Entraigues.  wards  Marquise  de  Verneuil.  He  was  morbidly 
susceptible  to  women's  charms.  Henriette  was  a  tall  young 
woman,  slim,  elegant,  and  beautifully  made,  but  arrogant, 
bad-tempered,  essentially  common,  mercenary,  and  heartless. 
She  extracted  a  written  promise  of  marriage  from  Henry  IV. 
Meanwhile,  however,  the  negotiations  with  the  Tuscan  Court 
had  been  concluded,  and  Henry  IV's  marriage  with  Margaret 
of  Valois  annulled  ;  with  the  result  that  the  union  with  Marie 
de'  Medici,  a  woman  of  eight-and-twenty,  rather  stout,  robustly 
healthy,  and  not  very  intelligent,  was  celebrated  at  Florence 
and  Lyons  in  1600.  In  September,  1601,  the  Dauphin,  after- 
wards Louis  XIII,  was  born  at  Fontainebleau.  Henry  IV 
still  continued  to  see  Henriette  d'Entraigues.  The  passion  for 
her  which  tormented  him  caused  much  unhappiness  in  his 
domestic  life,  and  came  near  to  producing  extraordinary 
complications.  For  Henriette,  on  the  grounds  that  she  had 
the  King's  written  word,  conceived  the  notion  of  having  his 
marriage  with  Marie  de'  Medici  annulled  in  order  to  bring  about 
her  own.  To  attain  her  ends,  her  family,  whose  members  were 
unscrupulous  people,  organized  a  conspiracy  which  aimed  at 
nothing  less  than  killing  Henry  IV,  and,  with  the  help  of 
England  and  Spain,  proclaiming  as  King  of  France  a  son  of 
Madame  de  Verneuil  by  Henry.  When  the  plot  was  dis- 
covered the  persons  concerned  were  arrested,  tried,  and  con- 
demned ;  but  Henry  IV,  with  excessive  wealincss,  pardoned 
them  all.  The  famous  promise  of  marriage  was  given  up,  and 
the  King's  passion  revived  once  more.  The  public  was  indig- 
nant, shocked  and  disapproving. 

But  there  were  yet  other  reasons  for  their  discontent. 
Henry  IV  was  reproached  with  having  been  too  free  with  his 
pardons,  of  having  paid  overmuch  to  his  enemies  and  heaped  too 
many  favours  on  their  heads  whilst  neglecting  his  friends. 
His  support  of  Sully,  who  was  universally  detested,  was  un- 
popular ;   and  complaints  were  made  that  he  kept  the  nobility 

323 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

at  a  distance  and  listened  only  to  his  ministers,  middle-class 
bureaucrats,  such  as  Bellievre,  Cheverny  and  Viileroy.  Catho- 
lics and  Protestants  were  alike  uneasy,  both  sides  suspicious 
of  the  King's  sincerity  towards  them.  The  public  peace, 
however,  was  not  destined  to  be  troubled.  Only  one  outbreak 
occurred — the  aflair  of  the  Duke  of  Biron. 

The  son  of  an  old  Marshal,  and  himself  a  good  and  courageous 
general  who  had  received  thirty-three  wounds  during  his  various 
The  case  of  campaigns,  a  companion  in  arms  and  a  friend 
Biron,  1602.  of  the  King,  who  had  twice  saved  his  life,  Charles 
de  Gontaut-Biron  was  a  big  swarthy  man,  with  deep-set  eyes, 
and  a  dull  glance  ;  he  was  ambitious,  arrogant,  and  of  no  great 
intelligence.  Henry  IV  had  made  him  Admiral,  Marshal, 
Governor  of  Burgundy,  and  a  Duke  and  Peer  of  the  realm,  all 
before  the  age  of  thirty-eight.  But  Biron  was  not  content,  and 
considered  that  he  had  not  been  sufficiently  rewarded.  He 
gambled,  lost,  and  incurred  enormous  debts.  The  Archduke 
of  the  Netherlands  and  the  Duke  of  Savoy,  with  whom  he  had 
established  relations,  invited  his  confidence  and  listened  to  his 
grievances.  The  Duke  of  Savoy  offered  him  his  sister  in  mar- 
riage together  with  200,000  crowns,  hoping  to  turn  him  into 
an  instrument  which  he  could  use.  He  even  discussed  the 
possibility  of  making  him  the  ruler  of  Burgundy  and  Franche 
Comte  which  had  become  independent,  and  completely  turned 
his  head.  Henry  IV  intercepted  a  suspicious  correspondence 
between  them  and  demanded  an  explanation.  As  no  satis- 
factory one  was  forthcoming,  he  insisted,  having  made  up  his 
mind  to  pardon  the  culprit  if  he  would  only  confess  his  double- 
dealing.  Biron,  however,  remained  stubbornly  silent  and 
treated  the  matter  with  a  high  hand.  The  King,  accordingly,  had 
him  arrested  at  Fontainebleau  and  put  in  the  Bastille,  where  he 
was  tried  and  condemned  to  death.  He  was  executed  on  July  31, 
1602.     Henry  IV  had  determined  to  make  an  example  of  him. 

The  end  of  Henry  IV's  life  was  sad,  darkened  as  it  was  by 
domestic  quarrels  rising  out  of  his  intrigue  with  Madame  de 
Proposed  cam-  Verneuil,  the  distrust  of  his  subjects,  and  fears 
paign  in  of  all  sorts.     Great  dreams  have  been  attributed 

Germany.  to  him.     Sully  maintains  that  he  conceived  the 

idea  of  forming  Europe  into  a  sort  of  United  States  consisting 
324) 


INTERNAL  PEACE.  HENRY  IV 

of  fifteen  states — six  hereditary  monarchies,  six  elective  mon- 
archies, and  three  federated  republics.  But  the  authenticity 
of  this  great  design  has  been  contested.  His  attention  was 
chiefly  concentrated  upon  Spain,  with  whom  he  foresaw  that 
war  would  break  out  again  before  long.  A  chance  circumstance 
caused  him  to  renew  the  conflict.  A  certain  Rhenish  Duke, 
William  of  Juliers,  Cleves,  and  Berg,  died  on  March  25,  1609, 
leaving  no  heir.  Numerous  competitors  for  the  position 
presented  themselves,  and  in  the  meanwhile  the  Emperor 
declared  that  he  would  sequester  the  property,  with  the  in- 
tention of  keeping  it  himself.  Henry  IV,  determined  not  to 
allow  the  Imperial  house  to  install  itself  at  Juliers,  formed  an 
alliance  with  about  ten  German  Princes  in  order  to  secure  the 
Duchy  in  dispute  to  the  Elector  of  Brandenburg  and  the  Count 
of  Neuburg.  This  meant  war.  The  King  of  France  collected 
an  army  of  35,000  men  and  decided  to  march  for  the  frontier 
on  May  19,  1610.  About  this  very  time,  however,  he  fell 
madly  in  love,  though  he  was  a  grey-beard  of  fifty,  with  the 
young  wife  of  the  Prince  of  Conde,  Charlotte  de  Montmorency, 
who  was  only  fifteen.  Annoyed  by  this  infatuation,  the  Prince 
of  Conde  had  taken  his  wife  away  to  Brussels.  It  has  been 
asserted,  though  the  fact  was  never  proved,  that  the  King's 
desire  to  get  back  this  young  lady  and  avenge  himself  on  the 
Archdukes,  who  were  keeping  her  in  Belgium,  had  some  con- 
nexion with  his  decision  to  enter  upon  the  campaign. 

Before  setting  out,  Henry  IV  had  Marie  de'  Medici,  who  was 
to  be  Regent  in  his  absence,  crowned  at  Saint-Denis  on  May  13. 
But  for  a  long  time  past  he  had  been  constantly  besieged  by 
dark  presentiments.  With  his  mind  full  of  the  discontent  and 
the  smothered  hostility  with  which  he  felt  himself  surrounded, 
he  would  frequently  remain  lost  in  thought,  seated  on  a  low 
chair  fingering  his  spectacle-case.  Then  he  would  suddenly 
get  up  and  exclaim,  "  Good  God,  I  shall  die  if  I  stay  in  this 
town  !  They  will  kill  me  !  "  His  face  was  frequently  clouded 
with  sadness  and  he  kept  repeating  to  his  intimate  friends : 
"  You  are  happier  than  I,"  and  wishing  he  were  dead.  He 
would  add :  "  When  I  am  gone  they  will  see  what  I  was 
worth ! " 

On  May  14,  at  about  four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  he  drove 

825 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

out  to  pay  a  visit  to  Monsieur  de  Sully  at  the  Arsenal.     He 
Murder  of  went  without  an  escort ;   attended  only  by  a  few 

Henry  IV,  1610.1ords-in-waiting,  he  took  his  seat  in  his  carriage. 
At  the  corner  of  the  Rue  de  la  Ferronnerie  and  the  Rue  Saint 
Honore,  his  coach  was  stopped  by  a  block  in  the  traffic.  A  man 
named  Ravaillac  sprang  upon  the  wheel,  and  as  Henry  IV  was 
reading  a  letter,  he  stabbed  him  twice  in  the  breast  with  a  knife, 
piercing  his  heart  and  lung.  The  King  fell  back  without  a 
sound.  Death  was  almost  instantaneous.  The  curtains  of 
the  carriage  were  drawn  and  the  body  brought  back  to  the 
Louvre.  The  assassin  was  a  madman  and  had  no  accomplices. 
Henry  IV  was  right :  his  people  were  soon  to  learn  his 
worth.  From  one  end  of  France  to  the  other,  even  in  the 
poorest  country  hovel,  unexampled  sorrow  and  stupefaction 
reigned  supreme.  "  There  is  not  one  amongst  us,"  wrote 
Bossuet  sixty-five  years  later,  "  who  cannot  remember  a  father 
or  a  grandfather  describing  not  only  the  astonishment,  the 
horror,  and  the  indignation  which  so  sudden  and  execrable  a 
blow  naturally  provoked,  but  the  sense  of  desolation,  such  as 
children  feel  who  have  lost  a  good  father."  No  King  of  France 
was  ever  so  deeply  regretted,  and  when  he  was  dead  his  subjects 
appreciated  the  qualities  of  this  monarch,  who  was  the  most 
Appreciation  charming,  the  most  witty,  and  the  most  truly 
of  Henry  IV.  French  of  all  the  old  Kings.  They  reminded 
each  other  of  his  smiling  courtesy,  his  gentleness  and  perfect 
manners.  The  nobles  recalled  his  jovial  familiarity  with  them, 
so  free,  so  full  of  good  temper  and  fellowship  ;  his  indomitable 
spirits  and  gaiety.  But  at  the  same  time  all  remembered  that 
he  knew  how  to  be  a  King,  master  of  himself  and  others,  to 
whom  there  was  no  reply  ;  and  how  he  could  assume  this 
character  in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye  if  necessary,  with  sovereign 
impetuosity  and  pride,  knowing  how  to  play  the  part  of  a  great 
lord  at  the  proper  time,  if  he  liked,  and  capable  of  wearing  the 
crown  of  France  with  the  proud  dignity  befitting  a  great 
kingdom.  He  was  every  inch  a  King  and  "  the  poor  were 
intoxicated  with  love  for  their  sovereign  !  "  Henry  IV  rendered 
two  invaluable  services  to  his  country.  He  gave  peace  to  his 
kingdom  after  thirty  years  of  civil  war,  and  he  taught  it  the 
meaning  of  toleration.  "  France  is  deeply  indebted  to  me," 
826 


INTERNAL  PEACE.  HENRY  IV 

he  wrote  on  one  occasion,  "  for  I  work  hard  for  her  !  "  The 
country,  after  his  death,  and  later  posterity,  ratified  this 
touching  statement. 

SouKCES.  D'Aubign6,  Histoire  Universelle,  ed.  de  Ruble,  1887 ; 
Palma  Cayet,  Chronologic  novennaire  and  Chronologic  scptennairc,  ed. 
Michaud  and  Poujoulat ;  Henri  IV,  Leltrcs  missives,  ed.  Berger  de  Xivrey, 
1843  ;  Sully,  Economies  royales,  ed.  Michaud  and  Poujoulat ;  L'Estoile, 
M^moires-Journaux,  ed.  G.  Brunet,  1875  ;  du  Plessis-Mornay,  Memoires 
et  correspondancc,  1824  ;  Memoires  de  la  Ligue,  1758  ;  Bassompierre, 
Memoires,  ed.  Chanterae,  1870 ;  MSmoires  d'JEtat  dc  Villcroy,  1665  ; 
Cheverny,  Memoires,  ed.  Michaud  and  Poujoulat ;  CI.  Groulart,  Mdmoircs, 
same  publishers  ;  de  Thou,  Histoire  universelle,  1734  ;  Journal  d'un  cure 
ligueur,  ed.  E.  de  Barthelemy,  1886  ;  Journal  du  siege  de  Paris  en  1590, 
ed.  Franklin,  1876  ;  Procts-verhaux  des  Etats-Gendraux  de  1593,  ed.  A. 
Bernard,  1842  ;  H.  de  Laurens,  Discours  et  rapport  veritable  de  la  conference 
(dc  Suresnes),  1593  ;  Satyre  Menippde,  ed.  C.  Read,  1876  ;  Cardinal 
d'Ossat,  Letlres,  1708  ;  Desjardins,  Ndgociations  diplomatiques  de  la  France 
avcc  la  Toscane,  1875. 

Works.  Poirson,  Histoire  du  regne  de  Henri  IV,  1865  ;  H.  de  la 
Ferriere,  Henri  IV,  le  roi,  Vamoureux,  1890  ;  J.  B.  Lagreze,  Henri  IV, 
vie  privie,  1885  ;  E.  Jimg,  Henri  IV  dcrivain,  1855  ;  Comte  de  Saint- 
Poncy,  Histoire  de  Marguerite  de  Valois,  1887  ;  B.  Zeller,  Henri  IV  et 
Marie  de  Mddicis,  1877  ;  Louis  Batiffol,  La  vie  intime  d'une  rcinc  de  France 
au  XVII  siecle  {Marie  de  Mddicis),  1906  ;  C.  Dufayard,  Le  conndtable 
de  Lesdiguieres,  1892  ;  G.  Fagniez,  USconomie  sociale  de  la  France  sous 
Henri  IV,  1897  ;  N.  Valois,  Le  conseil  de  raison,  1885  ;  C.  Pfister,  Les 
Economies  royales  de  Sully  et  le  grand  dessein,  1894  ;  J.  Loiseleur,  Problemes 
historiques,  mort  de  Gabrielle  d'Estrees,  1873  ;  A.  Douarche,  UUniversite 
de  Paris  et  les  Jesuites,  1888  ;  Elie  Benoist,  Histoire  de  VEdit  dc  Nantes, 
1693  ;  A.  Lods,  VSdit  de  Nantes  devant  le  Parlement  de  Paris,  1899  ; 
Anquez,  Histoire  des  assemhUes  politiques  des  rdformds  de  France,  1859  ; 
and  Henri  IV  et  V Allemagne,  1887  ;  Nouaillac,  Villcroy,  secretaire  d'Stat, 
1909  ;  C.  de  la  Ronciere,  Histoire  de  la  marine  frangaise,  vol.  iv,  1910. 


327 


CHAPTER   IX 

CIVILIZATION  UNDER  THE  LAST  VALOIS 

Part  played  by  the  Valois  in  the  Renaissance  movement  ;  their 
luxury  ;  influence  of  Catherine  de'  Medici.  The  Court  ceremonial ; 
the  ordinance  of  1585.  Svunptuousness  of  the  Court  ;  costumes, 
works  of  art ;  inventory  of  Catherine  de'  Medici's  house.  The  great 
lords  imitate  the  Queen  Mother.  Characteristics  of  the  art  of  the 
time  ;  the  study  of  antiquity  facilitated  by  means  of  printing  ; 
French  taste ;  the  dogmatic  regulation  of  canons  of  taste.  The 
Renaissance  ;  learned  men,  historians,  publicists,  jurisconsults  ; 
the  poets,  Ronsard  and  the  Pleiade  ;  the  Academic  du  Palais  ;  the 
Independents  :  Noel  du  Fail,  Montaigne,  Ambroise  Pare,  and 
Palissy.  The  arts  :  architecture  ;  the  architects  :  Androuet  du 
Cerceau,  Pierre  Lescot  and  the  Louvre,  Philibert  Delorme  and  the 
Tuileries,  Jean  Bullant  and  Ecouen  ;  sculpture,  Jean  Goujon  and 
Germain  Pilon  ;  painting  ;  drawings,  Clouet,  Corneille  de  Lyon  ; 
tapestry,  enamels,  stained  glass  ;  music,  Goudimel. 

nyy  OTWITHSTANDING  the  troubles  of  the  civil  wars  and 
^  the  drama  of  disorder  and  bloodshed  enacted  through- 
-^  ^  out  the  kingdom,  the  second  half  of  the  sixteenth 
century  in  France  was  marked  by  a  wonderful  brilliance  in 
the  domain  of  learning,  art,  and  letters.  The  general  con- 
„  ,  ,  ,  dition  of  the  country  did  not  arrest  the  develop- 
by  the  Valois  ment  of  men  of  brilliant  talents — nay,  these  were 
in  the  Renais-  actually  bound  together  by  a  universal  tendency, 
sance  Move-  a  sort  of  fashion,  which  gave  to  the  Renaissance 
^^^^'  proper  in  France  a  peculiar  value  of  its  own.     It 

was  more  or  less  due  to  chance  that  this  remarkable  period  in 
French  civilization  coincided  with  the  reigns  of  Henry  II  and  his 
sons.  The  monarchs  of  the  sixteenth  century  exercised  very 
Httle  influence  upon  the  literary  and  artistic  movement  of  their 
time.  Henry  II  took  no  interest  in  literature  ;  and  though 
Charles  IX  wrote  verses,  patronised  Ronsard,  and  was  interested 
in  the  Pleiade,  though  Henry  III  welcomed  Henri  Estienne  and 
328 


CIVILIZATION   UNDER   VALOIS 

furnished  subjects  for  debate  at  the  Academie  du  Palais,  it  cannot 
be  maintained  that,  but  for  them,  the  talents  of  the  artists  of 
their  century  would  have  been  very  different.  It  was  by  another 
means  that  they  took  their  unique  place  in  the  general  movement 
of  civilization  during  their  epoch  :  they  loved  luxury  and  display 
and  they  were  responsible  for  much  building. 

Few  Courts  have  left  in  history  reminiscences  of  greater 
magnificence  than  the  Court  of  the  Valois.  Festivals,  balls, 
tapestries,  jewels,  dresses,  scintillating  stuffs,  velvets  and 
brocades  all  mingled  together  in  a  somewhat  confused  picture 
full  of  warm  tones  and  gorgeous  colour.  Court  functions  at 
every  epoch,  in  the  fourteenth  as  well  as  the  fifteenth  centuries, 
and  more  particularly  under  Francis  I,  had  always  been  marked 
by  a  studied  display  of  artistic  luxury,  both  in  the  dress  of  the 
courtiers  and  in  the  setting  arranged  for  festivities.  But  the 
last  of  the  Valois  carried  this  luxury  to  its  utmost  extreme. 

It  was  their  mother,  Catherine  de'  Medici,  who  endowed 
them  with  this  taste.  She  was  rich  and  she  was  Italian,  a 
Influence  of  daughter  of  that  Florentine  House  of  Medici 
Catherine  de'  which  adored  beautiful  things  and,  in  collecting 
Medici  on  them,  was  governed  by  taste  as  well  as  love   of 

Court  life.  display.     Following   in   her    footsteps,    her    sons 

loved  every  kind  of  elegance.  Catherine  indulged  in  it  partly 
from  political  motives.  She  wished,  by  means  of  external 
splendour,  to  restore  to  the  Crown  that  prestige,  of  which 
circumstance  and  the  absence  of  moral  power  were  depriving 
it.  "  Your  Court,"  she  wi-ote  to  Charles  IX,  "  must  acquire 
the  dignity  and  decorum  I  formerly  found  there."  In  addition 
to  a  studied  refinement  in  its  appointments  and  costumes,  the 
Queen  Mother  introduced,  as  an  indispensable  feature,  that 
elegance  of  behaviour  which  is  termed  etiquette  ;  and  her  sons, 
Henry  III  above  all,  fulfilled  her  wishes  even  beyond  her  hopes. 
Together  with  a  consummate  taste  in  dress  and  jewellery,  the 
organization  of  the  aesthetics  of  Court  ceremonial  is  the  most 
signal  contribution  made  by  the  sons  of  Henry  II  to  the  artistic 
evolution  of  the  sixteenth  century. 

If  they  did  not  create,  they  at  all  events  considerably 
developed  that  atmosphere  of  perpetual  display  in  which  a  King 
of  France  was   destined  to  live  from  the  moment  he  awoke  in 

329 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

the  morning  to  the  time  that  he  fell  asleep  at  night,  a  solemn 
and  meticulous  existence  which  Louis  XIV  alone  was  capable 
of  observing  scrupulously.  Catherine  de'  Medici  outlined  it  in 
a  letter  written  to  Charles  IX  :  the  King  was  to  get  up  at  a 
particular  hour  ;  admit  the  nobility  into  his  bedroom  "  whilst 
he  put  on  his  shirt,  and  his  clothes  were  brought  in  ;  "  after 
this  the  council,  and  at  ten  o'clock  mass,  to  which  the  King 
was  to  go  in  procession  escorted  by  his  guards,  and  surrounded 
by  the  Court ;  at  eleven  o'clock  dinner,  the  courtiers  to  be  in 
attendance  standing  ;  then  twice  a  week  audiences,  after  which 
the  King  was  to  be  free  "  to  study  or  to  be  alone,"  but  only 
until  three  o'clock  ;  at  three  o'clock  a  walk  or  a  ride  with  the 
Court ;  supper  in  the  evening  with  the  royal  family,  and  twice 
a  week  after  supper,  a  ball ;  in  short  the  King  was  to  be  con- 
stantly on  show,  for  that  pleased  the  nobility  ;  he  was  not 
to  allow  them  out  of  sight,  was  to  amuse  them,  and  above  all 
to  insist  that  due  respect  was  always  shown.  Catherine  assured 
her  son  that  this  was  how  the  Court  was  conducted  in  the  time 
of  Francis  I. 

But  Henry  III  went  even  further.  He  aimed  at  isolating 
the  person  of  the  King  ever  more  and  more  from  the  rest  of 
Ceremonial  humanity,  with  the  object  of  inspiring  greater 
ordinance  respect  ;    and  on  January  1,  1585,  he  issued  an 

o£  1585.  edict,    a   grand   ordinance    "to   keep   each   man 

within  the  bounds  of  honour  and  respect  due  to  his  Majesty." 
From  this  time  forward  no  one  was  to  approach  the  King  either 
inside  or  outside  the  palace  without  first  being  summoned  by 
him  to  do  so  ;  in  the  royal  presence  hats  were  to  be  removed, 
and  no  one  was  allowed  to  sit  down  or  walk  about  the  room  or 
touch  any  object  whatsoever.  Strict  rules  were  made  regulating 
the  movements  of  those  about  the  King's  person,  together  with 
lists  of  those  who  were  privileged  to  approach  him,  entitled 
"  The  order  that  the  King  would  have  observed  in  his  Court 
and  the  fashion  in  which  he  would  be  honoured,  accompanied, 
and  served."  At  the  levee,  in  the  morning,  lists  of  those  who 
were  to  be  allowed  to  penetrate  into  the  various  rooms  of  the 
royal  suite  of  apartments — ^the  antechamber,  the  cabinet,  the 
state-room,  and  the  King's  bed-chamber,  were  made  out  in 
writing.  They  noted  many  complicated  grades  and  the  ushers 
330 


CIVILIZATION    UNDER    VALOIS 

were  strict  in  seeing  that  each  man's  rights  were  respected. 
During  the  King's  toilet  the  water  for  him  to  wash  with  was 
fetched  with  great  ceremony,  and  the  broth  for  his  breakfast 
was  brought  with  equal  ceremony.  A  detailed  paragraph 
designated  those  who  were  to  be  allowed  to  offer  the  King  a 
table-napkin  or  a  piece  of  bread.  The  etiquette  of  the  meals 
was  all  arranged,  and  it  was  known  who  might  be  present  to 
look  on,  and  who  had  the  right  of  handing  the  table-napkin. 
The  persons  present  were  forbidden  to  speak  to  the  King,  except 
on  an  extremely  lofty  plane  and  on  subjects  calculated  to  edify 
the  audience.  If  necessary,  barriers  separated  His  Majesty 
and  his  Swiss  Guards  from  the  rest  of  the  room.  When  the 
King  went  out,  the  favoured  persons  who  were  allowed  to  follow 
on  foot,  on  horseback  or  in  carriages,  were  all  appointed  be- 
forehand. Audiences  were  no  less  minutely  regulated.  They 
took  place  twice  a  week,  on  Mondays  and  Wednesdays  in  the 
afternoon,  when  the  King,  seated  in  his  "  chair  of  state,"  re- 
ceived the  person  admitted,  who  was  instructed  to  stand  at  a 
distance  and  invited  to  be  brief,"  in  order  not  to  weary  His 
Majesty."  The  ordinance  even  settled  the  days  on  which  balls 
were  to  be  held — on  Sundays  and  Thursdays  after  supper  ; 
princes,  lords  and  gentlemen  were  expected  to  attend  these 
entertainments.  These  recurrent  balls  were  an  innovation 
introduced  by  the  Valois,  and  explain  the  fact  that  in  the  royal 
castles  of  the  sixteenth  century  special  large  "  ball  rooms  " 
were  built — as  at  Saint-Germain-en-Laye  and  Fontainebleau 
— ^whilst  hitherto  there  had  only  been  ordinary  "  state  rooms." 
The  enactments  of  this  royal  protocol,  which  were  thus  made 
inflexible,  were  observed  with  more  or  less  precision  at  the  end 
of  the  sixteenth  and  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century; 
Henry  III  himself  carried  them  out  very  incompletely,  and 
Henry  IV  extremely  badly,  for  his  free  and  easy  manners  and 
wit  were  ill  adapted  to  show  and  ostentation.  Louis  XIII, 
whose  tastes  were  modest,  also  paid  little  attention  to  them. 
But  Louis  XIV's  care  not  to  miss  a  single  detail  and  even  to  add 
to  them,  was  destined  later  on  to  exemplify  their  spectacular 
dignity  as  well  as  their  tyrannical  constraint. 

In  this  setting,  the  movements  of  which  were  regulated  by 
royal  mechanism,  was  displayed  all  the  exaggerated  luxury  of 

331 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

young  princes  who  were  extremely  elegant,  extremely  rich — 
or  at  least  thought  themselves  so — and  extremely  extrava- 
Splendour  gant.     They  invented  fashions  in  dress,  fashions 

under  the  which  were    considered    ridiculous  by   the   wise 

last  Valois.  men  of  the  time,  and  were  above  all  very  costly 
and  extraordinarily  changeable.  Willy-nilly  the  nobles  and 
courtiers  were  obliged  to  follow  them,  and  there  was  a  regular 
pageant  of  magnificent  costumes  in  silks  and  velvets  of  every 
colour,  fine  furs,  and  gold  and  silver  embroidery,  the  whole 
covered,  in  the  case  of  men  as  well  as  of  women,  with  quantities 
of  jewels  representing  ridiculous  fortunes.  At  the  marriage 
of  Henry  of  Beam,  in  1572,  the  Duke  of  Anjou,  wrote  the 
Venetian  Giovanni  Michiel,  wore  in  his  cap  thirty-two  pearls 
of  twelve  carats  each,  for  which  he  had  paid  a  sum  of  23,000 
crowns  ;  whilst  the  King's  dress,  including  his  jewels,  was  worth 
500,000  or  600,000  crowns.  In  the  circle  about  the  princes  each 
man  vied  with  his  neighbour  in  the  number  and  value  of  those 
elegant  costumes  of  the  period,  graceful  and  capricious,  if  not 
comfortable  in  form.  "  A  courtier,"  said  Lippomano,  "  is  not 
considered  rich  unless  he  has  between  twenty-five  and  thirty 
costumes  of  various  styles  and  can  put  on  a  different  dress  every 
day."  Foreigners  noticed  with  astonishment  the  contrast 
presented  by  this  unreasonable  extravagance  and  the  misery 
and  want  prevalent  in  a  country  ruined  by  civil  wars  and 
covered  with  shattered  buildings.  But  careless,  frivolous  and 
pleasure-loving,  the  young  nobles  who  surrounded  Catherine 
de'  Medici's  sons  thought  nothing  of  these  things,  and  gave 
themselves  up  to  the  full  enjoyment  of  luxurious 
masquerading. 

Together  with  brilliance  in  dress,  the  Valois  introduced 
another  fashion  :  beauty  in  the  internal  decorations  of  houses 
— tapestries,  carved  wood,  curtains,  carpets  and  ornaments. 
An  inventory  made  on  the  death  of  Catherine  de'  Medici  of  all 
her  possessions  has  been  published.  This  inventory  gives  us 
some  idea  of  what  in  the  sixteenth  century  were  the  private 
surroundings  of  a  Queen,  whom  de  Thou  calls  femina  superbi 
luxus,  "  a  woman  of  superb  luxury."  It  is  true  that  she  was 
one  of  those  who  spent  money  right  royally  in  order  to  surround 
herself  with  objects  of  value,  and  that  in  spite  of  the  great 
332 


CIVILIZATION    UNDER   VALOIS 

fortune  she  inherited  as  the  daughter  of  a  Florentine  banker, 
she  died  deeply  in  debt. 

The  mansion  which  she  inhabited  in  Paris  and  which  she 
had  had  built  for  her,  occupied  the  site  of  the  present  Bourse 
Inventory  o£  ^^  Commerce.  It  was  afterwards  called  the 
Catherine  de'  Hotel  de  Soissons  ;  but  the  building  is  no  longer 
Medici's  in    existence.     All    the    walls    were    hung    with 

palace.  tapestry — Flemish  or  French  tapestry,  Beauvais 

tapestry,  verdures  and  subject -pieces,  such  as  the  history  of 
Hannibal,  which  covered  a  huge  tapestry  of  twelve  pieces  made 
to  adorn  the  great  hall  of  the  mansion  ;  the  tale  of  Vulcan  ; 
armorial  bearings  and  mottoes.  They  were  frequently  changed 
in  order  to  vary  the  aspect  of  the  rooms,  and  those  that  were 
not  in  use  were  put  away  in  attics.  Altogether  the  Queen 
possessed  129  tapestries.  Sometimes,  in  the  place  of  tapestry, 
the  walls  were  hung  with  stamped  leather,  with  backgrounds 
of  various  colom-s,  orange,  black,  green,  red  or  blue,  picked  out 
with  gold  and  silver.  Of  these  there  were  134  pieces.  Forty- 
four  Oriental  carpets  were  destined  to  cover  the  floors.  Many 
of  the  rooms  in  the  mansion  were  panelled  with  carved  wood 
in  which  small  pictures,  enamels,  or  Venetian  mirrors  were  set 
for  decoration.  One  cabinet,  called  the  Mirror  Cabinet,  con- 
tained 119  muTors  inserted  in  this  way  ;  whilst  another,  the 
Enamel  Cabinet,  was  adorned  with  seventy-one  Limoges 
enamels,  thirty-nine  of  which  represented  various  subjects  and 
were  oval  in  shape,  while  thirty-two,  about  a  foot  high,  were 
portraits  of  princes,  lords,  and  ladies.  In  addition  to  these, 
Catherine  de'  Medici,  possessed  some  259  enamels  of  all  kinds, 
an  extremely  rich  collection.  The  fm-niture  was  in  keeping 
with  this  sumptuous  setting.  Beneath  ceiUngs  panelled  in 
carved  wood  picked  out  with  gold,  stood  huge  four -post  beds, 
enclosed  by  white  damask  cm-tains  with  gold  valances,  adorned 
with  gold  trimmings  and  embroideries.  The  bed  of  the  Queen, 
who,  as  a  widow  always  wore  mourning,  was  hung  with  black 
velvet  embroidered  with  pearls  and  had  jet  or  ebony  posts 
adorned  with  silver  ;  the  seats  and  "  chairs  of  state  "  or  arm- 
chairs, were  of  ebony  inlaid  with  ivory  ;  the  candelabra  were 
of  jet,  and  the  tables  were  covered  with  black  velvet  embroidered 
in  wliite.     Elsewhere  there  were  white  guipures  mounted  on 

333 


CENTURY    OFTHE    RENAISSANCE 

black  satin,  stuffs  of  gold  and  silver,  embroidered  crapes,  crimson 
satins  and  cloth  of  gold.  And  in  the  midst  of  all  this  sumptuous 
decoration  there  were  collections  of  objects  of  all  kinds,  the 
smallest  of  which  were  worth  large  sums,  Catherine  de'  Medici 
had  476  pictures  including  341  portraits  ;  some  of  these,  it  is 
true,  were  small  works  meant  to  be  set  in  the  panelling.  They 
are  interesting  and  agreeable  mementoes  now,  owing  to  their 
life-like  expression  and  the  correctness  of  the  costumes  depicted  ; 
a  few  of  them  are  still  preserved  in  the  Louvre  and  at  Versailles. 
In  her  private  cabinet  she  had  twenty  genre  pictures,  landscapes, 
&c.  Next  in  importance  to  the  pictures  was  the  porcelain. 
Catherine  had  141  pieces  of  Palissy  ware,  dishes  and  bowls. 
The  tables  and  cabinets  were  loaded  with  artistic  ornaments, 
a  certain  number  of  which  have  been  preserved  in  the  Galerie 
d'Apollon,  and  give  us  an  opportunity  of  appreciating  their 
elegance  of  form  and  their  finished  workmanship — ewers, 
goblets,  flagons,  gondolas  of  carved  rock  crystal  or  pietra  dura 
mounted  on  enamelled  gold  stands,  Chinese  lacquers,  pieces 
of  ivory,  mother-of-pearl,  and  coral,  artistic  bindings,  bronzes, 
busts,  antique  medals,  fans,  and  Venetian  glass.  All  the  latest 
and  rarest  treasures  of  the  most  enlightened  taste  of  the  day 
were  to  be  found  in  her  possession.  There  was  nothing  precious, 
even  to  books  and  manuscripts,  of  which  she  did  not  covet  a 
valuable  collection.  She  left  4500  volumes  and  776  ancient 
manuscripts,  bearing  witness,  not  to  her  erudition — ^the  manu- 
scripts were  in  Latin  and  treated  of  austere  subjects,  and  she 
never  read  them — but  to  her  eclecticism.  We  have  said  nothing 
of  her  jewels  and  her  gold  and  silver  plate. 

Important  as  her  collections  were,  however,  they  were  not 
out  of  all  proportion  to  those  belonging  to  her  contemporaries. 
The  inventories  made  on  the  deaths  of  some  of  the  nobility 
reveal  the  same  tendencies.  Madame  de  Sainte-Aulaire  had 
forty-five  tapestries  in  her  house,  and  the  Guises  had  seventy- 
seven  in  the  Chateau  de  Joinville  alone.  Not  every  collector 
had  as  much  Palissy  ware  as  Catherine  de'  Medici ;  but  they 
all  had  pictures,  enamels,  and  crystal,  and  above  all,  those 
embroideries  on  silk  or  velvet  backgrounds  which,  although  they 
are  now  faded,  give  us  an  idea  of  the  rich  hangings  of  the  period. 
It  was  by  their  encouragement  of  these  luxurious  arts  that  the 
334 


CIVILIZATION   UNDER   VALOIS 

princes  and  grandees  of  the  time  contributed,  in  some  degree, 
to  their  development.  But,  in  other  respects,  they  did  not, 
any  more  than  the  Kings,  exercise  any  very  great  influence  over 
the  artistic  movement  of  the  second  half  of  the  sixteenth 
century. 

This    very   important    movement    is    marked    by    several 
distinct  characteristics  :   its  claim  not  to  be  empirical  as  in  the 
Characteristics   preceding  age,  but  on  the  contrary,  erudite,  and 
/  o£  the  art  of      to  seek  its  source  in  a  knowledge  of  antiquity  ; 
\/  the  period.         the  circumstance,   that  notwithstanding  this,   it 
'h    remained  French  and  unconsciously  followed  closely  the  tradi- 
tion of  the  epoch  that  had  gone  before,  while  improving  it  ;  the 
relative  unity  of  all  artistic  manifestations  of  the  time  by  reason 
of  this  twofold  aspiration  ;    and  lastly,  the  realization  of  the 
dignity  of  art,  resulting  in  the  fact  that  architects  and  poets 
no   longer   regarded   themselves   as   mere   craftsmen,    but    as 
creators     and    scholars     of     a     high     order.      This    was    the 
beginning  of  the  true  French  Renaissance,  in  contradistinction 
to  the  first  Renaissance,  which  may  be  said  to  have  ended  about 
1550  ;    because  by  that  date,  the  best  representatives  of  the 
age  in  which  individual  talents,  more  or  less  isolated,  coincided 
with  the  maintenance  of  a  French  tradition  carried  on  ever 
since  the    Middle  Ages,   had    disappeared,   or  were  about  to 
disappear.     For  Marot  died  in  1544,  Rabelais  about  1553,  and 
Margaret  of  Navarre  in  1549. 

The  increase,  owing  to  the  invention  of  printing,  in  the 
editions  of  ancient  authors,  both  Latin  and  Greek,  made  the 
The  study  o£  study  of  antiquity  extraordinarly  fashionable  in 
the  ancients,  the  sixteenth  century.  This  movement,  gradually 
inaugurated  during  the  Middle  Ages,  had  gathered  strength 
ever  since  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century.  It  was 
generally  admitted  that  to  be  learned  was  to  possess  a  title  to 
glory,  and  that  it  was  impossible  to  be  learned  without  having 
a  thorough  knowledge  of  ancient  literature.  The  ancients 
had  said  the  last  word  on  morality,  law,  and  art.  It  was  the 
fashion  to  swear  only  by  them.  Had  not  the  Reformation  found 
its  first  and  its  best  representatives  among  the  learned  men 
who  were  familiar  with  classical  philology,  and  able  to  refer 
triumphantly   to   the   original   texts  ?      In   imitation   of   the 

335 


CENTURY    OF     THE    RENAISSANCE 

ancients,  it  was  laid  down  as  an  axiom  that  definite  methods 
and  rules  are  necessary  in  every  branch  of  study.  What 
was  a  language  that  had  no  grammar,  no  syntax,  and  no 
orthography  ?  Hence,  for  instance,  arose  the  idea  of  fixing 
the  language  and  eliminating  everything  superfluous,  all  errors 
of  taste  and  lack  of  restraint,  and  of  suppressing  all  that  was 
disorderly  in  the  literary  and  linguistic  medley,  which  was  the 
legacy  of  the  Middle  Ages.  In  addition  to  this,  the  daily 
increasing  development  of  printing-works  and  the  growing 
output  of  books  published  in  French  gradually  led  to  the  idea 
of  unifying  giammatical  and  orthographical  forms,  so  that  all 
books  might  be  uniformly  readable.  And  thus  ideas  of  rule 
and  measure  in  imitation  of  the  ancients  came  into  existence, 
ideas  which  were  destined  to  characterize  the  whole  artistic 
and  literary  movement  of  the  second  half  of  the  sixteenth 
century.  In  1549  the  book  which  formulated  the  new  doctrine 
was  published— Joachim  du  Bellay's  Defense  et  Illustration 
Du  Bellav's  ^^  ^^  Langue  Frangoise.  Whereas  hitherto  it  had 
"  Defense  de  been  regarded  as  necessary,  and  for  a  long  time 
la  Langue  to  come,  was  still  to  be  so  regarded,  that  scientific 

francoise.  works  should  be  written  in  Latin,  on  account  of 

the  nobility  of  that  language,  and  also  in  order  that  the  learned 
men  of  all  countries  might  be  able  to  understand  each  other, 
du  Bellay  urged  his  compatriots  to  write  in  French.     In  this 
he  was  doubtless  influenced  by  the  Protestants,  who  conducted 
their  services  entirely  in  the  vulgar  tongue,  and  following  the 
example  set  by  Calvin  in  publishing  his  Institution  Chretienne 
in  French,  refused  to  employ  a  language  that  was  not  accessible 
to  all.     But  on  the  other  hand,  du  Bellay  insisted  that  the 
French  language  should  be  made  a  suitable  instrument,  that 
it  should  be  purified  and  enriched,  if  necessary,   by  learned 
philological  creations  of  words  which  it  lacked,  and,  above  all, 
be  endowed  with  style.     In  order  to  realize  these  aims,  it  was 
only  necessary,  he  continued,  to  turn  to  the  ancients  and  study 
their  rules.     He  called  upon  his  countrymen  to  renounce  all  the 
inventions  of  the  Middle  Ages, which  were  inadequate  and  ugly, 
ballads,  rondeaux,  and  virelays,  to  return  solely  to  the  ancient 
tradition  illustrated  by  Horace  and  Virgil  in  their  odes  and 
epics,  and  to  establish  a  French  prosody,  a  French  syntax,  and 
336 


CIVILIZATION    UNDER    VALOIS 

a  French  style.  Du  Bellay's  ideas  had  an  enormous  success, 
and  were  adopted  by  the  Pleiade.  They  were  productive  of 
three  results  :  an  imitation  which  grew  closer  every  day,  till 
it  amounted  almost  to  plagiarism,  of  the  ancients  ;  the  be- 
stowing of  a  more  and  more  rigorous  classical  education  on 
the  rising  generation  ;  and  a  contempt  for  the  so-called  bar- 
barous works  of  the  Middle  Ages  ;  all  of  which  resulted  in  the 
artificial  productions  of  an  erudite  literature  which  was  in  no 
sense  popular,  but  on  the  contrary,  aristocratic. 

And,  indeed,  the  imitation  of  antiquity  became  the  pre- 
vailing fashion.  Mythology  invaded  literature  and  art  till  it 
The  classical  encumbered  them.  The  gods  and  goddesses  of 
obsession.  Olympus    were    to    be    found    everywhere,    and 

nymphs  figured  ad  infinitum  in  poetry  and  bas-reliefs.  Every 
speech  invoked  the  heroes  of  the  ancient  world,  and  there  was 
no  historical  personage  for  whom  a  parallel  was  not  found  in 
the  pages  of  Plutarch.  The  good  side  of  this  fashion  was  to  be 
found  in  the  fact  that  instead  of  losing  themselves  in  mazes 
of  glossaries  and  commentary,  as  preceding  ages  had  done, 
people  made  a  direct  study  of  the  texts  themselves.  But 
classical  works  assumed  an  unparalleled  importance  and  value. 
The  smallest  particle  in  a  classic  sentence  was  weighed  and 
balanced  as  though  it  had  the  unique  significance  of  some 
judicial  formula.     The  fashion  became  a  superstition. 

From  that  time  forward  it  was  assumed  that  outside  the 
productions  of  antiquity  no  creation  of  the  human  mind  deserved 
the  effort  of  study.  The  writers  of  the  sixteenth  century 
were  the  first  to  suffer  from  this  narrow  theory  ;  for  they  were 
afterwards  neglected,  if  not  actually  despised,  by  succeeding 
generations.  With  the  exception  of  Queen  Margaret  of  Valois 
(whose  book-shelves  contained  their  works)  no  cultivated 
person  in  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries  who  formed 
a  "  library  "  thought  it  essential  to  include  the  French  Re- 
naissance writers  in  it.  And  even  the  Biblioth^que  Royale 
itself,  the  present  Biblioth^que  Nationale,  was  not  so  poor  in 
any  department  as  in  that  devoted  to  French  authors  of  the 
sixteenth  century.  This  tendency  which  is  known  as  "Classi- 
cism "  weighed  heavily  upon  the  development  of  the  French 
genius  after  the  sixteenth  century.     Rome  was  regarded  as  a 

Y  337 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

school  sufficient  for  all  needs.  Hence  the  prolonged  indifference 
to  everything  that  was  not  Roman,  to  the  original,  free,  and 
spontaneous  literature  of  the  Middle  Ages  and  of  Anglo-Saxon 
countries,  Shakespeare,  for  instance  ;  and  the  contempt  for 
scientific  and  political  speculations,  in  so  far,  at  least,  as  their 
application  to  practical  and  industrial  life  was  concerned.  It 
led  to  the  acquisition  and  development  of  valuable  qualities  of 
propriety,  taste,  and  restraint,  but  was  detrimental  to  inde- 
pendent, varied,  and  vital  inspiration.  In  the  State  it  conduced 
to  the  realization  of  Roman  uniformity  under  the  absolutism 
of  Louis  XIV,  which  perfectly  expressed  the  juridical  idea 
of  the  princeps  romanus  ;  and  the  classical  standard  ended  by 
destroying  those  communal  and  provincial  institutions  charac- 
teristic of  the  Middle  Ages,  [which  present  such  a  curious  spectacle 
of  freedom  and  autonomy. 

Contempt  for  the  Middle  Ages  was  indeed  one  of  the  dogmas 
that  the  new  school  professed  most  eagerly.  Apparently 
this  negative  attitude  was  the  very  origin  of  its  being. 
The  school  had  been  formed  with  the  object  of  making  war, 
and  "  a  fine  war  "  [wrote  Pasquier]  "  against  ignorance."  Ignor- 
ance meant  the  Middle  Ages,  "  the  ancient  barbarism."  All 
that  they  had  produced  in  the  domain  of  literature  was  mere 
*'  spicery  "  according  to  du  Bellay.  A  "  better  age  "  had  been 
inaugm-ated — the  epoch  which  aimed  at  bringing  things  "  to 
perfection."  And  thus,  in  contradistinction  to  the  artists  of 
the  preceding  period,  who  had  endeavoured,  each  in  his  own 
sphere,  to  do  the  best  they  could  in  accordance  with  their 
personal  tastes  and  tendencies,  their  temperaments  and  fancies, 
it  was  now  maintained  that  an  ideal  existed  destined  to  be 
common  to  all,  a  theory  of  beauty  brought  to  light  again  from 
the  ancient  world,  a  canon.  The  promulgators  of  the  new 
theories  were  dogmatists  who  became  exclusive. 

Of  this  they  were  fully  aware.  They  also  realized  that 
their  learned  and  reasoned  efforts  could  never  result  in  the 
production  of  works  fit  for  the  public  at  large — that  is  to  say, 
popular  ;  but  that  they  were  condemned  to  remain  select  and 
to  a  certain  degree  isolated.  They  accepted  this  aristocratic 
position  and  gloried  in  it.  But  in  spite  of  their  pretensions, 
they  were  not  the  exclusive  creators  of  the  movement  they 
338 


CIVILIZATION    UNDER   VALOIS 

represented.  They  belonged  to  a  sequence  and  were  the  links 
in  a  chain.  Before  their  time,  the  humanists,  who  had  sought 
in  Latin  writers  models  of  fine  language  which  they  imitated, 
had,  in  a  certain  sense,  pointed  out  the  road  to  them.  Italian 
influence  has  also  been  mentioned,  that  of  the  Italian  banking 
colony  at  Lyons,  and  that  of  the  Italians  attracted  to  France 
by  Catherine  de'  Medici.  But,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  this  alleged 
influence  is  not  easy  to  trace,  and  it  is  admitted  that  it  cannot 
have  lasted  long.  And,  above  all,  the  Classicists  owed  more 
than  they  thought  to  tradition.  In  short,  as  is  the  case  with 
every  fashion,  the  conditions  leading  to  the  development  of 
this  movement  are  shrouded  in  obscurity  and  its  evolution  had 
its  root  in  various  general  causes. 

The  proof  of  this  lies  in  the  fact  that  the  first  representatives 
of  this  second  Renaissance  were  of  diverse  origin,  and  sprang 
The  French  from  widely  different  conditions  and  localities. 
\/  Renaissance.  Whilst  Ronsard,  du  Bellay  and  du  Bartas  be- 
longed to  the  nobility,  and  Montaigne  and  Pasquier  to  the 
middle  classes,  many  were  of  extremely  modest,  not  to  say 
vulgar  extraction.  Henri  Estienne  was  a  printer's  workman. 
The  members  of  the  Pleiade  lived  in  Paris  ;  but  Antoine  de 
Baif,  Pontus  de  Thyard,  Louise  Labe  and  her  group  inhabited 
Lyons,  in  the  vicinity  of  their  printer,  Jean  de  Tournes  ;  whilst 
Muret  and  Vauquelin  de  la  Fresnaye  belonged  to  Poitiers.  In 
the  domain  of  art  the  provinces  were  as  brilliant  as  Paris. 

If  we  acknowledge  the  "  resurrection  "  of  antiquity  as  the 
basis  of  the  Renaissance,  pride  of  place  must  logically  be  given 
to  the  learned  men  and  philosophers  ;  for  it  was  they  who 
endowed  others  with  the  elements  of  their  doctrines  or  the 
means  for  formulating  them.  The  first  in  this  order  is  the 
learned  printer  Henri  Estienne — ^the  son  of  the  no  less  learned 
Henri  printer   Robert   Estienne — who   edited   so   many 

Estienne.  of  the  works  of  ancient  Greek  and  Latin  authors, 

and  above  all,  compiled  a  Greek  dictionary,  the  Thesaurus 
grwcce  linguce,  the  prototype  of  modern  lexicons.  He  was  a 
clever,  precocious  man,  extremely  gifted  but  terribly  bad- 
tempered.  After  having  studied  deeply  and  worked  hard,  he 
had  been  obliged  to  flee  to  Geneva  on  account  of  his  Protestant 
ideas.     He  returned,  however,  to  the  Court  of  Henry  III,  and 

339 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

was  kindly  welcomed  by  that  monarch.  After  numerous 
troubles  brought  upon  him  by  his  hot  temper,  he  died  a  ruined, 
or  an  almost  ruined  man,  at  Lyons  in  1598.  Henri  Estienne's 
work  was  very  considerable.  He  published  the  works  of  nearly 
all  the  Greek  writers,  translated  Pindar  and  Theocritus  into 
Latin,  edited  the  whole  of  Plato,  and  produced  first  editions 
of  Appian  and  Anacreon.  His  publications  furnished  ample 
material  for  study  to  the  philologists. 

One  of  these,  a  certain  Jacques  Amyot,  wished  to  make 
Greek  literature  in  particular  accessible  to  the  public  by  means 
Jacques  o^  translations  into   French.     Amyot   was   born 

Amyot.  at  Melun  of  humble  parentage  in  1513,  but  had  a 

brilliant  career.  He  entered  the  Church,  afterwards  becoming 
Professor  of  Greek  and  Latin  in  the  university  of  Bourges, 
where  he  attracted  attention  by  his  translation  of  the  Loves  of 
Theagenes  and  Charicles  by  Heliodorus,  and  of  Daphnis  and 
Chloe  by  Longus.  He  was  subsequently  made  tutor  to  Henry 
II's  sons,  who,  when  they  came  to  the  throne,  overwhelmed 
him  with  honours,  making  him  Bishop  of  Auxerre,  Grand 
Chaplain  of  France,  and  Commander  of  the  Order  of  the  Holy 
Ghost.  He  was  supple,  but  his  astuteness  failed  him  before 
his  death  ;  for  he  ended  his  days  in  great  unpopularity  in  1593 
by  reason  of  his  friendship  for  Henry  III.  His  translation  of 
Plutarch's  works  is  celebrated,  and  had  a  great  success,  both 
on  account  of  the  subject  matter  and  the  charming  simplicity 
of  its  naive  style.  This  translation  did  more  than  a  good  many 
editions  of  ancient  writers  to  make  the  heroes  of  antiquity 
familiar  figures.  Every  private  library  for  the  next  two  hundred 
years  gave  Amyot's  Plutarch  a  place  of  honour. 

The  accurate  methods  employed  by  the  philologists  in  the 
production  and  translation  of  classical  texts  were  also  applied 
Etienne  to  the  study  of  history  by  the  historians,  the  chief 

Pasquier.  of  whom  was  the  worthy  fitienne  Pasquier,   a 

lawyer  by  profession,  born  in  Paris  in  1529.  He  was  a  great 
jurisconsult,  whose  name  was  in  everybody's  mouth,  owing 
to  his  conduct  of  many  important  suits — ^the  case  of  the  Univer- 
sity against  the  Jesuits,  for  instance.  He  was  a  member  of 
the  States -General  in  1588,  and  lived  in  honourable  seclusion 
from  1604  to  1615,  when  he  died.  In  his  Recherches  de  la  France^ 
340 


CIVILIZATION   UNDER   VALOIS 

the  first  volume  of  which  appeared  in  1561,  the  second  in  1565, 
and  the  eight  others  at  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century, 
he  made  an  attempt  to  reconstruct  the  history  of  France  by 
means  of  direct  reference  to  documents,  and  the  original  ac- 
counts given  by  contemporary  authors. 

Following  Pasquier's  example,  publicists  also  began  to 
manifest  a  similar  tendency.  Jean  Bodin,  born  at  Angers  in 
The  publicists.  1530,  was  a  bad  lawyer  and  a  heavy  writer, 
though  he  was  rich  in  traditional  ideas.  He  was  attached  to 
the  household  of  the  Duke  of  Anjou,  who  had  him  appointed 
Grand  Master  of  the  Woods  and  Waters,  and  afterwards  to 
the  Court  of  Henry  IV.  In  1560  he  published  his  Methode 
pour  Hudier  Vhistoire,  followed  in  1576  by  his  voluminous  work 
De  La  Republique  (literally  De  la  Chose  Publique)  the  aim  of 
which  was  to  prove  by  means  of  a  careful  study  of  the  past, 
that  the  French  monarchy  must  be  in  no  sense  absolute  or 
tyrannical,  but  moderate  and  limited.  His  big  book  is  very 
confused. 

Another  publicist,  Francois  Hotman,  was  a  Calvinist  (1524- 
1590)  and  the  son  of  a  parliamentary  judge.  He  was  a  learned 
professor  and  an  aggressive  controversialist  who  just  escaped 
being  compromised  by  the  Conspiracy  of  Amboise,  and  finally 
left  France  after  the  Massacre  of  Saint  Bartholomew.  In  the 
following  year  (1573)  he  published  his  great  work  Franco  Gallia, 
sive  tractatus  de  regimine  regum  Gallice  et  de  jure  successionis,  in 
which  he,  too,  returning  to  the  study  of  the  ancient  documents  of 
France,  tried  to  prove  that  the  monarchy  should  be  elective 
and  not  hereditary,  and  that,  in  any  case,  its  authority  should 
be  held  in  check  by  the  regular  convocation  of  the  States- 
General. 

After  history  and  political  theory,  law  in  its  turn  felt  the 
effects  of  the  new  tendencies— Roman  law  as  represented  by 
Jurisconsults.  Jacques  Cujas,  and  Common  Law  as  represented 
by  Charles  du  Moulin.  Cujas,  who  was  born  at  Toulouse  in 
1522,  and  was  a  wandering  Professor  of  Law  who  taught  almost 
everywhere — at  Cahors,  Bourges,  "Valencia,  Turin,  Paris,  and 
again  at  Bourges,  where  he  died  in  1590 — had  an  unrivalled 
knowledge  of  Roman  Law.  Students  flocked  to  his  lectures 
in  order  to  hear  his  illuminating  commentaries  on  the  old  law 

341 


CENTURY    OF    THE   RENAISSANCE 

texts,  which  he  explained  by  referring  to  the  testimony  of 
contemporary  writers,  thus  placing  each  law  and  each  juris- 
consult in  the  proper  period.  He  was  an  admirable  Greek 
scholar  and  wrote  pure  Latin.  His  Commeniaires  du  Corpus 
Juris  civilis,  his  critical  editions  of  Justinian  and  Ulpian  are 
monumental  works,  and  his  name  was  a  venerable  authority 
in  the  legal  world  under  the  old  regime. 

A  jurist  less  celebrated  to-day,  but  who  once  enjoyed 
almost  as  great  a  reputation  in  the  legal  world,  was  Charles 
Charles  du  du  Moulin,  a  native  of  Paris,  born  in  1500.  He 
Moulin.  was  of  noble  descent  and  possessed  a  strong  and 

well  ordered  intellect.  He  was  a  Protestant,  however,  and 
his  religion  caused  him  much  misfortune.  He  was  cast  into 
prison,  but  managed  to  escape  to  Germany,  where  he  became 
a  Professor  at  Tiibingen.  He  subsequently  returned  to 
France,  and  was  again  cast  into  prison  for  having  published 
in  1564,  his  Conseil  sur  le  fait  du  Concile  de  Trente,  which  was 
regarded  as  impertinent.  He  died  in  1566.  He  was  not  a  good 
speaker  and  took  up  the  profession  of  a  consulting  lawyer. 
His  great  work,  the  Commeniaires  sur  la  Coutume  de  Paris,  is  a 
weighty  publication  in  which  he  explains,  with  valuable  historical 
illustrations,  those  innumerable  Common  Law  enactments 
upon  which  present  French  law  is  partly  based.  He  was  the 
authority  par  excellence  on  Common  Law,  and  was  at  once 
jurist,  historian,  philosopher  and  well-informed  scholar.  His 
work  was  continued  by  Guy  Coquille  and  Antoine  Loisel. 

The  learned  world  had  set  the  example,  and,  following  in 
its  footsteps,  literature  too  prided  itself  upon  returning  to 
antiquity.     In  this  the  poets  took  the  lead. 

The  sixteenth  century  was  rich  in  poets,  ifitienne  Pasquier 
talks  of  "  the  great  flotilla  of  poets  produced  in  the  reign  of 
The  Poets.  Henry  II."  Many  of  these  have  been  completely 
forgotten,  and  even  among  those  whose  names  have  survived, 
not  one  has  left  a  collection  of  works  of  such  sustained  beauty 
as  have  certain  seventeenth-century  writers.  Whether  their 
preoccupation  with  classical  antiquity  marred  or  benefited 
their  productions  is  a  delicate  question.  One  thing  at  all  events 
seems  certain,  and  that  is  that  the  sixteenth-century  authors 
are  most  pleasing  when  they  give  free  play  to  qualities  of 
342 


CIVILIZATION   UNDER   VALOIS 

simplicity,  natural  charm,  and  spontaneous  emotional  grace, 
limpid  qualities  which  seem  essentially  French.  Two  dil'ierent 
currents  can  be  distinguished  in  their  work — the  inspiration 
derived  from  antique  learning,  and  the  continuation  of  French 
traditions  with  the  characteristics  of  the  national  temperament. 
The  two  currents  appear  side  by  side,  whilst  in  certain  isolated 
authors,  as  we  shall  see,  the  second  gained  the  upper  hand. 
Such  conflict  was  inevitable  between  an  education  imposed  from 
without  and  the  traditional  instinct  of  a  race  asserting  itself. 

The  first  group  of  poets  to  attract  attention  appeared  in 
Lyons — a  city  which  was  at  that  time  an  important  centre, 
the  point  of  contact  between  France  and  Italy,  Switzerland, 
and  Germany.  Two  names  belonging  to  this  group  have  come 
down  to  us — those  of  Maurice  Sceve  and  Louise  Labe,  who  in 
a  tentative  and  incomplete  way  foreshadowed  the  ideas  of  the 
Pleiade.  But  in  trying  to  be  classical,  Maurice  Sceve,  a  worthy 
and  learned  alderman,  became  unintelligible,  and  his  chief  work, 
consisting  of  449  decastich  verses,  Delie,  objet  de  la  plus  haute 
vertu,  is  a  mere  exercise  in  pedantic  subtlety.  More  spontaneous, 
however,  was  the  work  of  Louise  Labe,  la  Belle  Cordiere,  as  she 
was  called  (1526-1566)  who,  after  a  strange  career  in  her  youth, 
during  which  she  dressed  up  as  a  boy  and  took  part  in  the  siege 
of  Perpignan  under  the  name  of  Captain  Louis,  settled  down 
to  a  sober  married  life  with  a  merchant  of  Lyons  named  Perrin. 
She  wrote  sonnets  and  elegies  modelled  on  the  Greek,  the 
passionate  accents  of  which  are  not  always  devoid  of  sincerity. 
She  occupies  a  position  superior  to  that  of  Sceve  and  her  con- 
temporaries called  her  Sappho. 

But  in  discussing  the  poetry  of  the  sixteenth  century  the 
mind  dwells  especially  on  a  much  more  illustrious  group,  which 
The  Pleiade.  received  the  name  of  the  Pleiade.  This  was  a 
band  of  seven  authors  of  unequal  merit,  who  synthesized  the 
poetical  movement  of  the  sixteenth  century.  The  original 
founders  who  banded  themselves  together  about  1550  were 
fewer  than  seven.  They  called  themselves  the  Brigade,  and 
it  was  only  when  they  reached  their  symbolic  number  in  1556 
that  they  adopted  the  name  Pleiade.  The  members  were 
Ronsard,  du  Bellay,  Baif,  Belleau,  Pontus  de  Thyard,  Jodelle 
and  Daurat.     Daurat,  who  was  a  Hellenist  and  never  wrote  in 

343 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

French,  seems  at  one  time  to  have  been  the  soul  of  the  enter- 
prise— and  what  an  enterprise  !  "  The  renewal  of  poetical 
themes,  the  transformation  of  style,  the  reconstitution  of  the 
language  I  "  Their  pretensions  might  have  appeared  ridiculous 
had  not  partial  success  ennobled  their  overweening  ambitions. 
Two  of  them  were  really  gifted,  Joachim  du  Bellay  and  Ronsard. 
Du  Bellay  who  was  a  priest  and  Canon  of  Notre  Dame  de 
Paris  (1524-1560)  was  obviously  marked  out  by  his  Defense  ei 
Illustration  de  la  Langue  frangoise,  clearly  a  work  of  the  new 
school,  to  be  a  member  of  the  Pleiade.  He  was  a  native  of 
Anjou,  with  delicate  health  and  a  lively  imagination,  who, 
after  travelling  about  Italy  from  1553  to  1557,  settled  down 
in  Paris,  His  Poisies  frangoises  and  his  two  books  of  sonnets, 
Olive  and  Regrets,  are  applications  of  the  system  of  imitating 
antiquity.  But  he  is  not  always  happy  in  his  imitations,  which 
are  sometimes  clumsy  and  obscure.  When,  however,  he  gives 
free  rein  to  his  native  spirit,  which  is  natural,  charming,  sweet, 
and  graceful,  and  follows  the  true  old  French  tradition,  he  is 
excellent — an  exquisite  poet. 

Quand  reverrai-je,  helas  !  de  mon  pauvre  village 
Fumer  la  ehemlnee,  et  en  quelle  saison 
Reverrai-je  le  clos  de  ma  pauvre  maison  ? 
Plus  me  plait  le  sejour  qu'ont  bati  mes  aieux 
Que  des  palais  remains  le  front  audaciexix  .  .  . 
Plus  que  le  marbre  dur  me  plait  I'ardoise  fine 
Et  plus  que  I'air  remain,  la  douceur  angevine.* 

More  gifted  than  Du  Bellay  was  Ronsard,  the  greatest  poet  of 
the  Renaissance,  and  one  of  the  best  writers  of  the  French 
language.  Pierre  de  Ronsard  was  of  noble  birth  and  was  born 
in  1524  in  the  Chateau  de  la  Poissonniere  in  Vendome.  In 
his  youth  he  took  part  in  Court  life  and  was  sent  on  political 
missions  abroad.  But  in  1540  he  became  deaf  and  retired  from 
the  world  to  write  verses.     In  this  he  found  his  vocation  and 

*When  shall  I  look  upon  the  smoke  that  curls 
Above  my  village  chimneys,  and  behold 
The  little  field  about  my  humble  house  ?  .  .  . 
More  fair  to  me  my  father's  dwelling  seems 
Than  the  proud  fronts  of  Roman  palaces  .  .  . 
Than  this  enduring  marble  the  grey  slate. 
Than  Roman  air  the  sweet  breath  of  Anjou. 
344 


CIVILIZATION    UNDER    VALOIS 

he  became  the  undisputed  chief  of  the  Pleiade.  "  He  made  an 
end  of  the  ugly,  vulgar,  insipid,  stupid,  and  badly  rhymed 
poetry  that  had  existed  before,"  says  Brant ome,  "  and  created 
the  well-turned  verse  of  to-day."  His  first  Odes  appeared  in 
1550  together  with  a  collection  of  sonnets  called  Amours.  In 
1556  he  published  some  Hymnes  and  a  continuation  of  his 
Amours.  The  first  edition  of  his  works  was  dated  1560.  They 
form  a  large  collection,  running  to  eight  volumes  in  the  modern 
Blanchemain  edition,  and  contain  elegies,  epithalamia,  eclogues 
and  the  beginning  of  an  epic  poem.  The  French  Kings  over- 
whelmed him  with  honours  ;  he  became  famous,  and  had 
numerous  abbeys  conferred  upon  him.  After  having  taken 
an  active  part  in  the  conflict  against  the  Protestants  he  died 
in  peace,  though  somewhat  isolated  and  remote,  in  1585.  He, 
too,  in  addition  to  his  classical  pretensions  possessed  the  best 
French  qualities :  brilliance,  diversity,  and  a  delicate  and 
melancholy  gift  of  harmony,  now  graceful,  now  violent,  now 
exquisite,  now  passionate.  But  when  he  tried  to  imitate  the 
ancients  he  became  enigmatical  and  pedantic.  His  mjrthology 
is  wearisome  and  his  ideas  obscure.  He  rendered  great  services 
to  literature  by  the  discovery  of  varied  rhythms,  the  purification 
of  a  somewhat  hybrid  language,  and  by  the  association  of  all 
that  was  noble  in  classical  thought  with  the  French  spirit.  He 
was  a  true  poet. 

These    two  together,    Ronsard   and   du   Bellay,   were  the 
leaders  of  a  whole  school  of  poetry,  the  influence  of  which  was 
'  Ronsard  and      still  felt  in  the  reign  of  Henry  IV.     Writers  like 
du  Bellay.  Philip  Desportes,  and  Vauquelin  de  la  Fresnaye, 

were  amongst  their  rivals,  as  well  as  Guillaume  de  Salluste, 
Seigneur  du  Bartas,  a  native  of  Gascony,  who  was  born  near 
Auch  (1544-1590).  He  was  a  soldier,  who  was  sent  on  various 
diplomatic  missions  to  England  and  Denmark,  and  was  killed 
at  Ivry.  A  fervent  and  mystical  Huguenot,  he  wrote  a  poem 
on  the  story  of  creation  which  had  a  great  success. 

In  imitation  of  the  bards  of  Hellas,  Ronsard  and  his  followers 
conceived  the  idea  of  having  their  poems  sung.  Hence  arose 
The  Academic  the  project  of  an  association  of  poets  and 
du  Palais.  musicians  ;   a  plan  which  was  carried  out  in  1570 

and  developed  into  an  academy  called  the  Academic  du  Palais. 

345 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

The  French  Kings  took  a  great  interest  in  this  institution,  more 
especially  Charles  IX,  who  declared  himself  its  patron,  and 
granted  it  certain  privileges.  It  grew  and  gradually  admitted 
all  kinds  of  members  to  its  ranks,  writers,  men  of  the  world, 
and  women  such  as  Madame  de  Retz  and  Madame  de  Lignerolles, 
Its  members  delivered  addresses,  to  which  Henry  III  came  to 
listen,  and  for  which  he  himself  suggested  subjects.  At  one 
time  this  body  assumed  the  name  of  LAcademie  Fran9aise, 
and  was  a  prototype  of  the  society  founded  by  Richeheu.  It 
accentuated  and  confirmed  the  aristocratic  and  restricted 
character  of  the  whole  literary  movement  of  the  Renaissance. 

But  against  this  aristocratic  attitude  in  literature,  pro- 
testations were  raised  in  the  name  of  the  genius  of  the  race. 
Du  Bellay's  Defense  was  attacked  by  the  Quintil  Horatian,  a 
work  attributed  to  Barthelemy  Aneau.  "  If  anyone,  by  good 
fortune,  takes  a  pleasure  in  my  pastimes,"  wrote  Sibilet  in  his 
preface  to  the  Iphigenia,  "  I  do  not  so  much  envy  him  his  joy 
as  to  be  anxious  to  defend  the  communication  of  my  diver- 
sions, in  order  to  reserve  them  for  a  gi-oup  of  half  a  dozen 
reputed  princes  of  our  language."  Independent  writers  sprang 
up  here  and  there,  who  allowed  their  talents  free  play,  and 
carried  on  the  traditions  of  the  individualistic  authors  of  the 
first  half  of  the  century,  with  all  the  richness  of  a  luxuriant 
and  disorderly  style,  and  a  pleasant  roving  imagination.  Yet 
even  these  were  not  untouched  by  the  mania  for  classical 
learning  so  characteristic  of  the  period. 

Amongst  them  was  Noel  du  Fail,  a  magistrate  in  the  Par- 
liament of  Rennes,  a  worthy  Breton  gentleman,  born  about 
Noel  du  Fail.  1520.  He  travelled  about,  studying  at  Paris, 
Angers,  Blois,  Bourges,  and  Avignon.  In  1547  he  published 
under  the  pseudonym  of  Leon  Ladulfi  his  Propos  Rustiques, 
and  in  1548  his  Baliverneries  or  Conies  noiiveaux  d'Eutrapel. 
He  retired  from  public  life  in  1585  and  died  in  1591.  "  Our 
ancestors,"  he  said,  "  did  not  speak  as  rhetorically  as  we  do, 
but  they  spoke  better,  and  their  language  was  clearer  and  more 
intelligible  than  ours."  His  rustic  tales,  which  are  full  of 
simplicity  and  good-natured  wit,  bear  testimony  in  the  exquisite 
pictures  they  draw  of  rural  life  to  a  charming  feeling  for  nature, 
and  revive  the  tradition  of  the  old  French  story-tellers.  If  he 
346 


CIVILIZATION    UNDER    VALOIS 

lacks  the  power  of  Rabelais,  he  has  the  same  free  spirit  and  some- 
thing of  his  rollicking  gaiety  and  realism.  He  had  a  good 
knowledge  of  the  ancient  writers,  which  he  displays  in  his 
work. 

But  the  chief  of  all  is  Montaigne,  the  famous  Michel  de 
Montaigne,  a  native  of  Perigord,  who  was  born  in  1533  and 
Montaigne.  died  in  1592.  He  was  the  son  of  a  well-to-do 
merchant,  and,  after  having  been  a  counsellor  in  the  Par- 
liament of  Bordeaux,  gave  up  his  legal  career  in  1570  to  live  a 
country  life  on  his  paternal  estate.  This,  however,  did  not 
prevent  him  from  travelling  in  Germany,  Switzerland,  and 
Italy  ;  from  holding  the  office  of  Mayor  of  Bordeaux  from 
1581  to  1585,  an  office  in  which  he  did  not  give  proof  of  any 
very  remarkable  civic  virtue  ;  or  from  accepting  the  title  of 
Gentleman  of  the  Bedchamber  to  Henry  III.  In  1580,  when 
he  was  forty-seven,  he  published  two  volumes  of  his  essays  ; 
a  third  appeared  in  1588.  It  is  a  unique  work  in  which  the 
philosophical  author  calmly  discourses  about  life  in  his  library 
on  the  second  floor  of  the  Chateau  de  Montaigne,  where,  from 
the  top  of  a  hill  six  miles  from  Libourne,  he  overlooks  the 
Lidoire,  a  tributary  of  the  Dordogne.  Free  from  all  worldly 
care,  independent  and  tranquil,  he  judges  men  and  things  with 
a  lenient  scepticism.  He  is  of  the  lineage  described  above, 
resembling  Rabelais  in  his  easy  good-humour,  his  love  of  nature 
and  that  smiling  indulgence  which  is  a  species  of  doubt  and 
indifference,  admirably  expressed  by  a  flowing,  supple  style. 
He  too  was  deeply  versed  in  ancient  literature,  and  filled  his 
works  with  classical  quotations  and  allusions. 

We  must  also  mention  Pierre  La  Ramee,  the  latinized  version 
of  whose  name  was  Ramus.  He  was  born  of  poor  parents  in 
Ramus.  Vermandois  about  1515,  and  worked  as  a  servant 

in  the  College  de  Navarre.  He  managed  to  educate  himself, 
and  subsequently  became  a  professor.  He  dared  to  attack 
Aristotle,  who  from  the  Middle  Ages  onwards  had  been  regarded 
as  the  great  authority,  maintaining  that  many  of  the  works 
ascribed  to  him  were  spurious,  that  the  remainder  were  open  to 
doubt,  and  that  the  commentators  were  misleading.  The 
University  took  him  sharply  to  task.  He  ended  by  being 
appointed  a   professor  at  the  College   de  France,  where    his 

347 


CENTURY    OF   THE    RENAISSANCE 

instruction  was  of  a  lucid  and  original  type.  He  taught  a  little 
of  everything — grammar,  rhetoric,  mathematics,  and  philosophy. 
Calvinism  proved  his  undoing  ;  he  was  killed  in  the  Massacre 
of  Saint  Bartholomew.  He  was  a  jealously  independent  spirit. 
Ambroise  Pare  (1517-1590)  was  also  a  man  of  unusual  gifts,  a 
celebrated  surgeon,  who  knew  neither  Latin  nor  Greek,  but  made 
Ambroise  Pare,  a  way  for  himself  through  the  Hotel-Dieu  in  Paris. 
He  belonged  to  a  family  who  lived  in  very  modest  circumstances 
near  Laval,  and  he  followed  the  French  armies  on  campaign 
as  a  doctor.  On  the  pretext  that  the  little  Latin  he  had  been 
able  to  acquire  was  abominable,  the  faculty  only  granted  him 
his  doctor's  degree  in  1554.  As  an  operating  surgeon,  however, 
his  skill  amounted  to  genius.  He  bravely  wrote  treatises  on 
anatomy  and  surgery  in  French,  which  laid  him  open  to  hostile 
attacks.     He  was  the  founder  of  French  surgery. 

Bernard  Palissy  also  was  ignorant  of  Greek  and  Latin.  He 
was  a  savant  as  well  as  a  great  artist,  a  working  man  of  the 
Palissy.  south  of  France,  a  native  of  Agenais.     He  adopted 

the  calling  of  geometrical  surveyor,  and  settled  at  Saintonge, 
becoming  a  convert  to  Protestantism.  The  story  of  his  eager- 
ness to  discover  the  secret  of  Italian  enamelled  earthenware 
and  of  his  success  is  well  known.  His  dishes,  "  his  rustic 
crocks  "  as  he  called  them,  covered  with  iridescent  enamel 
which  gives  the  effects  of  lapis-lazuli,  agate,  and  precious  stones 
in  the  form  of  lizards,  crayfish,  and  animals  of  all  sorts,  and 
later  on,  scenes  containing  human  figures,  were  his  chief  titles 
to  fame.  Endowed  with  an  inquiring  inteUigence  and  an 
open  mind,  he  read  translations  of  PHny  and  studied  and 
taught  natural  science.  In  1563  he  pubHshed  his  Traite  des 
sels  divers  et  de  V agriculture,  and  in  1580  his  Uart  de  terre, 
de  la  nature,  des  eaux  et  fontaines,  des  mitaux,  des  terres,  la 
Recepte  veritable,  and  his  Discours  veritables,  which  give  proof 
of  a  scientific  spirit  extremely  advanced  for  his  time  and  almost 
proclaim  him  a  precursor  of  scientific  agriculture.  He  died  in 
obscurity— a  prisoner,  it  is  said,  on  account  of  his  religious 
opinions. 

Thus  we  see  that  the  study  of  antiquity  was  imposed  even 
upon  the  independents  of  the  second  half  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  those  who  refused  to  accept  the  severe  discipline  to 
348 


CIVILIZATION    UNDER    VALOIS 

which  Ronsard  and  his  followers  submitted,  but  remained 
faithful  to  the  joyous  tradition  of  their  country,  its  spontaneity 
and  abundance.  These  two  characteristics  are  even  more 
strongly  manifested  in  the  domain  of  the  arts. 

The  art  which  shone  with  the  greatest  brilliance  during 
the  second  half  of  the  sixteenth  century  was  architecture. 
Architecture.  When  we  think  of  the  works  of  the  Renaissance 
we  evoke  more  especially  the  beautiful  buildings  of  that  period, 
with  their  necessary  accompaniments  of  graceful  and  varied 
sculptural  decorations.  Whereas  before  this  time  the  architect, 
in  the  strict  sense  of  the  word,  did  not  exist,  and  there  were 
merely  master-masons  who,  in  collaboration  with  the  owner, 
built  structures  which  were  raised  bit  by  bit,  without  much 
concern  about  their  final  effect,  and  in  any  case,  not  on  any 
preconceived  symmetrical  plan  ;  from  the  time  of  Henry  II 
onwards  there  came  into  being  a  class  of  theorists  and  scientific 
men  who  laid  down  principles  and  prescribed  rules.  Architects 
arose,  artists  who  designed  a  carefully  proportioned  whole, 
put  a  complete  work  of  art  upon  paper  before  beginning  to 
build,  and  moreover,  conceived  great  and  exceedingly  compli- 
cated plans.  French  architecture  at  once  attained  an  incom- 
parable degree  of  beauty.  And  the  initial  cause  of  this  evolution 
was  once  again  the  influence  of  antiquity. 

Two  Italians,  Alberti  and  SerUo,  the  former  belonging  to 
the  fifteenth  and  the  latter  to  the  sixteenth  century,  had  dis- 
covered Vitruvius,  the  Roman  architect  who  lived  in  the  time 
of  Caesar  and  Augustus,  and  his  learned  book  De  architecturd. 
The  passion  for  the  study  of  antiquity  fired  builders  as  well  as 
the  rest.  Serlio's  Book  of  Architecture  was  published  in  French 
in  1545,  whilst  in  1547,  the  first  translation  of  Vitruvius  ap- 
peared ;  the  Roman  buildings  that  still  remained  standing  in 
Italy  served  as  commentaries  to  the  text.  After  studying  the 
principles,  builders  crossed  the  Alps,  and  examined  these, 
measured  and  drew  them  ;  and  then,  on  their  return  to  France, 
published  works  in  which  they  demonstrated  the  theory  of  the 
art.  Jean  Bullant's  Regie  (T Architecture  appeared  in  1564,  and 
Philibert  Delorme's  Architecture  in  1567.  In  the  name  of 
classical  authorities,  these  new  theorists  formulated  the  ideas 
governing    their  manual  craft,  raising  it  to  the   dignity  of  a 

349 


CENTURY    OF   THE    RENAISSANCE 

reasoned  art ;  and  those  who  had  been  hitherto  obscure  and 
empirical  mechanics  developed  into  architects — persons  of  a 
much  higher  social  standing.  Like  poetry  in  the  hands  of 
the  Pleiade,  architecture  became  learned,  and  like  the  Pleiade, 
the  new  artists  were  full  of  disdain  for  the  "  Gothic  "  style  of 
the  Middle  Ages.  According  to  Philbert  Delorme  it  was  out 
of  date,  "  barbarous  "  and  had  been  abandoned  by  "  all  who 
had  an  inkling  of  real  architecture."  And  yet  they  owed  more 
to  it  than  they  knew.  But  less  aristocratic  than  the  poets 
belonging  to  Ronsard's  circle,  they  consented  to  work  for 
everybody,  and  not  merely  for  a  chosen  few. 

Practically  speaking,  the  lesson  taught  by  antiquity  to 
French  architects  was  not  so  much  a  sense  of  proportion — for 
all  the  good  builders  of  the  past,  inspired  by  some  innate,  obscure, 
and  exquisite  feeling,  had  always  displayed,  in  their  most  varied 
structures  an  admirable  taste  for  artistic  proportions — but  a 
sense  of  classical  symmetry.  They  studied  the  Greek  orders 
and  became  acquainted  with  the  calculations  involved  in  the 
elements  of  antique  architectm'e,  such  as  columns  and  pilasters, 
pediments  and  metopes.  They  learnt  all  the  shades  of  dift'erence 
between  Ionic,  Corinthian,  Tuscan  and  composite  capitals, 
and  they  circulated  among  themselves  drawings  of  Greek  and 
Roman  temples,  all  of  which  led  them  to  feel  the  need  of  im- 
porting into  their  structural  conceptions  a  regard  for  perfect 
equilibrium  between  the  various  parts  and  an  exact  corres- 
pondence in  every  particular.  A  discipline  was  now  established. 
One  of  the  most  famous  names  among  these  theorists  was  that 
of  Jacques  Androuet,  called  du  Cerceau. 

With  the  exception  of  the  mediocre  church  at  Montargis, 
there  are  few  buildings  for  which  du  Cerceau  is  known  to  have 
been  responsible.  The  chief  of  a  dynasty  of  architects  who 
Androuet  du  worked  on  as  late  as  the  first  thirty  years  of  the 
Cerceau.  seventeenth  century,  he  was  above  all  a  writer. 

His  Livre  d' Architecture,  and  his  other  engraved  works  won  him 
considerable  fame  from  his  own  day  onwards.  He  was  born  in 
1512  and  travelled  a  great  deal  in  Italy,  paying  a  visit  to  Rome 
and  making  drawings  of  the  buildings  there  from  1530  to  1540. 
He  began  to  publish  his  collections  in  1545  and  died  in  1584. 
His  books,  in  which  he  gives  designs  for  building,  offer  a  curious 
350 


CIVILIZATION   UNDER    VALOIS 

medley  of  the  combined  influences  of  antiquity,  the  Italian 
Renaissance — which  had  long  preceded  the  French  Renaissance 
in  its  application  of  principles  borrowed  from  Greece  and  Rome, 
adapting  them,  however,  to  Italian  taste,  conditions,  and  manner 
of  life — French  tradition,  and  a  personal  idiosyncrasy,  which 
is  occasionally  bizarre  and  unpractical.  The  point  which  is 
particularly  interesting  in  connexion  with  him  is  the  persistence 
of  French  tradition  revealed  in  some  of  his  plans,  which  recall 
Louis  XII's  Chateau  at  Blois,  and  in  the  square  plan  of  his 
mansions,  based  upon  fifteenth-century  models — the  square 
plan  which  was  destined  to  become  so  popular  in  the  sixteenth 
and  seventeenth  centuries. 

For  as  a  fact,  in  spite  of  the  influence  of  antiquity,  the 
genius  of  the  French  nation  remained  true  to  itself  ;  and  the 
The  French  proofs  of  this  loyalty  are  to  be  found  throughout 
tradition  in  the  sixteenth  century.  The  Blois  of  Louis  XII, 
architecture.  with  its  high  roofs,  its  harmonious  combination 
of  brick  and  stone,  its  lofty  chimney  stacks,  regular  windows, 
and  bold  general  effect,  is  reflected  in  the  great  chateaux  of  the 
Renaissance  :  Ancy-le-Franc,  Folembray,  Valery  and  Villers- 
Cotterets.  The  square  plan,  so  typically  French,  is  common 
to  Charleval,  Anet,  Ecouen,  Bury  and  Saint-Maur,  as  well  as  to 
Ancy-le-Franc,  Villers-Cotterets  and  Verneuil.  If  a  seventeenth- 
century  mansion,  such  as  the  Chateau  de  Pont  in  Champagne,  be 
compared  with  late  fifteenth-  and  early  sixteenth-century  build- 
ings in  France,  such  as  Blois  and  Amboise,  and  with  classical  or 
Italian  Renaissance  buildings,  their  connexion  with  the  French 
style  of  the  end  of  the  Middle  Ages  is  at  once  apparent.  The 
decoration  alone  shows  that  foreign  models  have  been  studied. 
In  cases  where  the  building  allows  of  developments  in  the 
way  of  sculptural  decoration,  antique  or  Italian  influence 
is  found  embodied  in  classical  elements,  such  as  Greek  orders, 
columns,  pilasters,  ovoli,  bucrania,  &c.  Mythological  subjects 
especially  abound  and  pagan  inspiration  predominates.  But 
even  here  the  existence  of  this  tradition  in  France  docs  not 
date  merely  from  1550  and  the  publication  of  Vitruvius  ;  it  is 
anterior  to  this  and  its  beginnings  arc  lost  in  obscurity.  We 
shall  prove  this  by  making  a  brief  survey  of  artists  and  their 
works. 

351 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

These  artists  had  the  good  fortune  to  live  during  an  epoch 
when  the  conditions  of  existence  rendered  the  confined  life  spent 
mj.g  in  the  sombre  fortresses  of  the  fifteenth  century 

Renaissance  distasteful,  and  when  every  one  was  replacing  the 
chateau  frowning  walls    of    defence  characteristic  of  the 

supersedes  the  Gothic  period  by  the  light,  open  fa9ades  of  the 
feudal  castle.  ^^^  country  seats.  People  built  extensively, 
princes,  princesses,  and  illustrious  ladies  setting  the  example, 
and  spending  their  money  freely.  Catherine  de'  Medici  was 
responsible  for  the  Tuileries  ;  Diane  de  Poitiers  for  Anet  and 
Chenonceaux  ;  and  Constable  Montmorency  for  ficouen.  But 
the  man  who  set  the  example — and  the  finest  example — was 
the  King  when  he  rebuilt  the  Louvre. 

When  the  Emperor  Charles  V  passed  through  France  in  1539, 
Francis  I,  it  is  said,  felt  humiliated  at  being  able  to  show  him 
as  a  royal  palace  only  the  forbidding  fortress  of  Philip  Augustus, 
slightly  improved  by  King  Charles  V,  of  which  the  Louvre  at 
that  time  consisted.     He  made  up  his  mind  to  have  it  pulled 
down   and  replaced   by  an   airy,   symmetrical,  and  agreeable 
edifice.     It  was  the    brilliant  royal  victor    of  Marignano  who 
initiated  the  architectural  art  of  the  second  half  of  the  sixteenth 
century.     He  enlisted  the  services  of  a  man  of  talent  named 
Pierre  Lescot.    Pierre  Lescot.     Born  in  1510,  this  Pierre  Lescot 
was  a  priest,  the  son  of  a  procurator -royal  in  the  Court  of  Aids. 
He  had  a  veritable  genius  for  architecture  and  had  been  a 
draughtsman  from  his  childhood  onwards.     He  was  extremely 
learned  and  also  very  rich.     Amply  provided  with  good  posts, 
for  he  was  made  Chaplain -in -Ordinary  to  the  King,  Abbot  of 
Clermont  in  the  diocese  of  Laval,  Canon  of  Notre -Dame  de  Paris, 
and  Seigneur  of  Clagny  at  Versailles,   he  practised  architec- 
ture for  love  of  the  art — it  was  the  passion  of  his  life.     Francis  I 
recognized  his  worth,  and  on  August  2,  1546,  as  we  know  from 
the   letters -patent  which  are  still  in  existence,  he  asked  him 
"  to  build  and  construct  in  our  castle  of  the  Louvre  a  large 
block  of  dwelling-rooms  on  the  site  of  the  present  great  hall  " — 
that  is  to  say,  that  part  of  the  Louvre  now  occupied  by  the 
Hall  of  the  Caryatides  and  the  Salle  Lacaze  above  it.     We  see 
that  Francis  I's  idea  was  somewhat  restricted,  and  it  is  not 
known  how  much  work  Lescot  carried  out  during  the  reign  of 
352 


CIVILIZATION    UNDER    V  ALOIS 

that  monarch  ;  probably  very  Httle.  But  Henry  II  extended 
Henry  II's  his  favour  to  the  architect ;  and  on  April  14,  1547, 
Louvre.  as  soon  as  he  succeeded  to  the  throne,  he  con- 

firmed the  order  given  by  his  father.  Lescot,  however,  pro- 
posed to  Henry  II — who  accepted  his  suggestions — a  plan  of 
construction  conceived  on  a  far  grander  scale,  which  was  after- 
wards carried  out,  at  least  in  so  far  as  the  dimensions  were 
concerned.  The  architect  set  to  work  and  remained  attached 
to  the  Louvre  till  the  day  of  his  death  in  1578.  He  enjoyed 
a  privileged  position,  being  entirely  independent  of  the  Superin- 
tendent of  Public  Buildings,  making  his  own  arrangements 
with  the  workmen,  contractors,  and  artists,  and  directing  every- 
thing alone.  He  continued  his  work  until  1568,  when,  owing 
to  political  events,  building  operations  were  suspended  for  ten 
years.  They  were  begun  again  in  1580-1581  under  the  direction 
of  Baptiste  Androuet  du  Cerceau.  Henry  II  was  responsible 
for  the  west  wing  of  the  Louvre,  that  is  to  say  the  part  con- 
taining the  Hall  of  the  Caryatides,  and  also  the  corner  pavilion 
on  the  side  facing  the  Seine  (the  Pavilion  du  Roi)  and  the  first 
block  of  the  south  wing  at  right  angles  to  it  along  the  quay. 
Charles  IX  continued  this  wing  as  far  as  about  the  middle  of  the 
present  fa9ade  ;  and  this  was  all  that  was  done  during  the  six- 
teenth century  round  the  square  court  of  the  Louvre.  After  a 
peaceful  life,  during  which  he  was  extolled  by  his  contemporaries, 
beloved  by  the  poets,  particularly  by  Ronsard  who  sang  his 
glory,  and  by  the  men  of  letters  whose  society  he  frequented, 
Pierre  Lescot  died  in  September,  1578,  in  his  little  house  in  the 
cloisters  of  Notre -Dame,  to  which  his  position  as  canon  entitled 
him,  and  was  buried  in  one  of  the  cathedral  chapels.  He  does 
not  seem  to  have  built  or  desired  to  build  much  beyond  the 
Louvre. 

Lescot  may  be  regarded  as  the  earliest  of  the  great  French 
architects,  and  by  singular  good  fortune,  it  fell  to  him  to  design 
not  only  the  greatest  of  French  palaces,  but  also  the  most 
magnificent  ever  built  in  France.  It  is  obvious  that  he  was 
not  responsible  for  much  of  the  later  work.  The  part  that  may 
certainly  be  attributed  to  him  is  the  idea  of  the  great  square 
court,  and  the  western  fa9ades  in  that  court. 

Few  buildings   give   an  impression  of    more  consummate 

g  353 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

beauty  than  Pierre  Lescot's  fagade  of  the  Louvre  overlooking 
the  court.  No  other  building  has  attained  such  a  happy  per- 
fection of  harmonious  proportion,  elegance,  nobility,  balance, 
delicate  taste,  and  exact  fitness  in  the  details  contributing  to 
the  general  effect.  It  is  neither  Greek,  Roman,  nor  Italian, 
but  absolutely  French.  The  decorative  sculpture  is  calculated 
to  support  and  emphasize  the  lines  of  the  architecture,  and  is 
neither  too  inconspicuous  nor  too  aggressive,  but  singularly 
right  and  harmonious.  The  external  fa9ade  is  simpler  and  is 
built  on  to  the  old  and  enormously  thick  wall  of  the  Louvre 
of  Philip  Augustus,  which  was  preserved.  It  rose  above  the 
moat,  and  with  its  comparatively  unornamented  windows,  high 
roofs  and  chimney-stacks,  bears  a  strong  resemblance  to  the 
traditional  French  style  found  at  Ancy-le-Franc — which  is  said 
to  be  a  little  earlier  than  the  Louvre — and  at  Amboise.  The 
new  features  introduced  on  the  internal  fagade  of  the  Louvre, 
for  which  Lescot,  it  is  constantly  asserted,  found  his  inspiration 
in  classical  or  Italian  models,  are  the  engaged  Corinthian 
columns  supporting  semicircular  arches  separated  by  niches  for 
statues.  It  is  true  that  these  details  are  frequently  found  in 
Italian  Renaissance  buildings,  but  in  France  Lescot  merely 
applied  principles  that  were  already  well  known,  and  had 
been  slowly  penetrating  into  the  country  for  some  years  past. 
The  semicircular  arches  had  previously  been  used  in  the 
Chateau  de  Madrid,  whilst  engaged  Corinthian  pilasters,  niches 
for  statues,  and  friezes  were  already  in  existence  at  Blois  and 
even,  as  regards  certain  of  these  details,  at  Amboise.  Ancy-le- 
Franc,  moreover,  is  such  a  striking  example  of  the  application 
of  the  same  principles  that,  unless  we  are  to  accuse  him  of 
plagiarism,  we  may  suppose  that  Lescot  was  the  architect  in 
this  case  also.  In  short,  Lescot  made  use  of  elements  to  which 
the  French  were  already  accustomed  ;  his  originality  consists 
in  skilful,  remarkable  architectural  effect.  Tradition,  learning, 
and  inspiration  were  all  combined  in  his  case  and  guided  by  an 
Charles  IX's  unfailing  artistic  instinct.  The  whole  school  of 
additions  to  French  architecture  of  the  period  turned  to  the 
the  Louvre.  same  sources  of  inspiration.  In  1566  Charles  IX 
had  the  ground  floor  of  the  small  gallery  built — ^the  Galerie 
d'Apollon — and  the  lower  storey  of  the  great  gallery  on  the  river 
354 


CIVILIZATION    UNDER    VALOIS 

side  ;  these  buildings,  though  they  may  not  perhaps  have  been 
designed  by  Lescot,  preserved  the  same  decorative  qualities 
as  the  rest  of  the  Louvre.  In  1572  the  work  was  stopped  by 
the  Massacre  of  Saint  Bartholomew  ;  but  Henry  IV  continued 
it  once  more  on  his  return  to  Paris  in  1594.  He  carried  the 
gallery  along  the  river  as  far  as  the  Tuileries,  and  added  to  it 
an  entresol  or  mezzanine,  and  a  first  storey,  which  he  made 
into  a  great  gallery  similar  to  the  additional  storey  he  built 
over  the  smaller  gallery.  His  architects,  even  if  they  did  not 
follow  Lescot's  designs,  were  at  all  events  governed  by  the  same 
ideas. 

The  other  great  architects  of  the  second  half  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  though  very  different  in  character  to  Lescot,  yet 
present  us  with  the  same  fundamental  features.  After  Lescot 
one  of  the  most  celebrated  was  Philibert  Delorme. 

He  too  was  a  priest,  and  was  born  in  the  Lyons  district 
about  1515.  He  was  the  son  of  a  master  of  the  works,  and 
Philibert  travelled  in  Italy  where  he  made  a  great  many 

Delorme.  drawings.     On  his  return  to  France,  Cardinal  du 

Bellay  took  an  interest  in  him,  and  commissioned  him  to  build 
the  Chateau  de  Saint -Maur,  which  attracted  much  attention. 
In  1548  Diane  de  Poitiers  entrusted  him  with  the  building  of 
Anet,  a  sumptuous  mansion  to  which  Delorme  devoted  his  whole 
genius,  looking  upon  it  as  his  masterpiece.  Of  the  great  square 
of  buildings  that  he  raised,  barely  one  wing  and  the  chapel  are 
still  in  existence.  Henry  II  was  greatly  interested  in  Anet, 
and  took  a  fancy  to  the  architect,  whom  he  appointed 
"counsellor  and  architect  to  the  King,"  and  Superintendent  of 
Buildings — in  order  to  ensure  for  him  the  obedience  of  con- 
tractors— and  Chaplain -in-Ordinary.  He  also  made  him  a 
royal  treasurer,  and  overwhelmed  him  with  abbeys — the  Abbeys 
of  Saint  Barth61emy-l^s-Noyon,  of  Ivry  in  the  diocese  of  fivreux, 
and  of  Saint  Serge -l^s -Angers,  and  nominated  him  like  Lescot, 
a  Canon  of  Paris.  In  1564  Catherine  de'  Medici  asked  him  to 
construct  the  palace  she  was  planning  to  have  built  at  a  short 
distance  from  the  Louvre — the  Tuileries.  Ever  since  the  death 
of  Henry  II  she  had  disliked  Les  Tournelles,  and  had  been 
looking  out  for  some  other  place  of  abode.  Delorme  made  a 
colossal  plan  for  her — a  rectangular  structure  269  metres  wide 

355 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

and  166  metres  deep,  containing  five  inner  courts  and  various 
ampliitheatres.  Catherine,  however,  was  destined  only  to  raise 
a  part  of  the  half  of  the  fa9ade  which  faced  west,  and  a  stable. 
Delorme  died  in  1570  without  having  finished  even  that  portion 
of  his  fa9ade,  and  Jean  BuUant,  who  took  his  place,  substituted 
his  own  ideas  for  those  of  his  predecessor.  In  1572,  after  the 
Massacre  of  Saint  Bartholomew,  his  work  too  was  stopped. 

Philibert  Delorme  was  responsible  for  numerous  buildings. 
A  great  many  of  his  works  are  unknown  to  us,  and  those  which 
are  acknowledged  to  be  his,  have  either  been  destroyed  or  very 
much  modified.  But  he  published  a  Traite  d' Architecture  and, 
a  work  entitled  Nouvelles  inventions  pour  bien  bdtir,  which 
enable  us  to  form  some  appreciation  of  his  character.  He  was 
a  learned  man,  a  mathematician  who  took  a  dehght  in  difficult 
problems  and  their  solution  by  means  of  calculations.  He  made 
a  great  advance  in  the  technique  of  his  art,  more  especially  in 
stereotomy  or  the  cutting  of  stone.  But  in  his  case  science 
proved  detrimental  to  inspiration.  When  he  tried  to  be 
majestic  he  became  heavy.  He  did  not  possess  Pierre  Lescot's 
purity  of  style  nor  the  more  advanced  science  of  Jean  Bullant. 
His  laboured  calculations  are  too  obvious.  When  he  gives 
free  play  to  his  imagination,  as  he  does  in  some  of  the  designs 
in  his  book  on  architecture,  he  produces  odd  results — an  arti- 
ficial mixture  of  classical,  Italian,  and  French  art.  The  chapel 
he  built  at  Anet  is  almost  Italian  in  style,  and  the  front  of 
this  building,  which  has  been  preserved  in  the  ]£cole  des  Beaux 
Arts,  in  Paris,  and  consists  of  three  storeys,  each  of  a  different 
order,  Doric,  Ionic,  and  Corinthian,  passing  from  the  heaviest 
to  the  most  slender  form  of  construction,  is  an  example  of  his 
mathematical  methods.  The  tomb  of  Francis  I  at  Saint-Denis, 
however,  which  was  designed  by  him,  and  is  a  sort  of  Roman 
triumphal  arch  of  three  divisions,  supporting  the  kneeling 
figmres  of  the  King  and  Queen,  whilst  below  lie  the  two  princes 
sculptured  with  an  almost  Gothic  realism,  and  surrounded  by 
equally  realistic  battle  scenes,  is  a  harmonious  and  graceful 
monument.  Philibert  Delorme  had  a  very  violent  temper, 
and  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  he  was  a  canon,  his  morality 
was  of  a  somewhat  dubious  quality.  He  quarrelled  with  a 
great  many  people  and  after  the  death  of  Henry  II,  even  fell 
356 


CIVILIZATION    UNDER   VALOIS 

into  disgrace  from  which  he  was  rescued  by  the  favour  of 
Catherine  de'  Medici. 

His  successor,  Jean  Bullant,  was  born  at  ficouen  in  1510. 
It  was  indeed  a  brilliant  generation  which  first  saw  the  light 
Jean  Bullant.  between  1510  and  1515,  and  included  so  many 
illustrious  names.  Like  all  the  rest,  he  paid  his  visit  to  Rome 
and  Italy,  which  now  formed  the  indispensable  apprenticeship 
for  every  artistic  career.  On  his  return  to  !£couen,  the  Con- 
stable, Anne  de  Montmorency,  who  lived  there,  attached  him 
to  his  service.  When  the  Constable  was  in  disgrace,  he  con- 
ceived the  idea  of  rebuilding  his  castle  and  charged  the  young 
architect  with  the  task.  The  construction  of  ficouen,  which 
is  still  standing,  made  Jean  Bullant's  reputation.  Mont- 
morency, who  returned  to  favour  during  the  reign  of  Henry  II, 
brought  his  architect  to  Court,  and  recommended  him  to  the 
King ;  and  it  was  through  the  Constable's  influence  that 
Bullant  was  appointed  Controller  of  Crown  Buildings  in  1557. 
Like  Delorme  he  subsequently  seems  to  have  suffered  an  eclipse. 
He  was,  perhaps,  disgraced.  At  all  events  he  went  into  re- 
tirement, when  he  seized  the  opportunity  to  publish  two  books 
— his  Recueil  d'horlogiographie  in  1561  and  his  Regie  generate 
d^ architecture  in  1568.  The  latter  work  proves  that  Bullant 
was  a  learned  mathematician,  who  studied  all  the  elements  of 
his  art,  and  especially  the  Greek  orders,  columns  and  capitals, 
in  accordance  with  precise  calculations  and  on  scientific  prin- 
ciples. He  was  almost  more  of  an  engineer  than  an  architect, 
and  might  have  said  with  Philibert  Delorme  that  he  was 
"  fascinated  by  those  beautiful  inventions  that  may  be  dis- 
covered by  means  of  mathematics."  He  studied  Vitruvius 
thoroughly,  and  was  certainly  influenced  by  antiquity,  if  it  be 
really  true  that  on  one  of  the  facades  of  ficouen  he  reproduced 
an  arrangement  of  the  Temple  of  Jupiter  Stator  at  Rome.  In 
1570,  on  the  death  of  Philibert  Delorme,  Catherine  de'  Medici 
took  him  into  her  service  and  commissioned  him  to  carry  on 
the  building  of  the  Tuileries.  But  he  finished  only  one  pavilion 
in  it  and  did  not  do  any  further  work  on  the  palace.  He  died 
in  the  same  year  as  Lescot.  His  name  is  exceedingly  well 
kno\\'Ti,  though  his  work  is  meagre  enough.  He  is  best  known 
to  us  by  his  books.     Of  the  three  architects  whom  we  have  just 

357 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

been  considering,  Bullant  was  the  most  learned,  whilst  Lescot 
was  the  greatest  artist. 

Learning  and  tradition,  the  two  associated  terms  which 
we  have  just  discussed  in  connexion  with  architecture,  are  also 
Sculpture.  to  be  found  as  conjoined  elements  in  other  mani- 

festations  of   that    sixteenth    century    which    was    so    highly 
endowed   with  a  sense  of  the   beautiful.      Let  us   now  note 
their  effect  upon  sculpture,  a  branch   of   art    which  may  be 
summed  up  in  two  names  :   Jean  Goujon  and  Germain  Pilon. 
There  are  few  artists  so  famous    as  Jean    Goujon    about 
whose  lives  so  little  is  known.     He  is  believed  to  have  been  a 
Jean  Goujon.     native  of  Normandy,  though  there  is  no  proof  of 
this  fact.     The  accounts  of  the  Cathedral  of  Rouen,  in  which  his 
name  is  mentioned  for  the  first  time  in  1540-1541,  in  connexion 
with  the  columns  supporting  the  organ  in  the  church  of  Saint 
Maclou,  which  were  made  by  him,  as  well  as  the  doors  of  that 
building,  describe  him  modestly  as  a  "  stone-cutter  and  mason." 
He  carved  the  statue  on  the  tomb  of  Georges  d'Amboise  in 
Rouen   Cathedral.      In    1543   we   find   him  in    Paris    carving 
the  rood-screen  of  Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois  under  the  direc- 
tions  of   Pierre   Lescot.      From  that   moment   he   leapt  into 
fame.     The  Epitome  of  Vitruvius  which  was  printed  at  Toulouse 
in  1556,  calls  him  a  "  sculptor  of  great  repute,"  and  Ronsard 
mentions  him  in  his  verses.      He  was  called  upon  to   colla- 
borate in  all  the  great  works  of  the  period.      Jean   Bullant 
employed    him    at    !Ecouen    in    1544 ;    Philibert    Delorme    at 
Anet  in  1553,  and  Pierre  Lescot  on  the  Fountain  of  the  Holy 
Innocents  and  above  all  at   the  Louvre  from  1550  onwards. 
He  was  a  prodigious  worker,  but  a  great  many  of  his  productions 
have   disappeared.     The   date   of   his   death   is   unknown.     It 
probably  took  place  about  1565,  and  not  during  the  Massacre 
of  Saint  Bartholomew,  for  it  is  by  no  means  certain  that  he 
was  a  Protestant.     The  sculptural  works  by  him  which  still 
survive  are  very  remarkable  :    The  Diana  from  the  Chateau 
d'Anet,  now  in  the  Louvre,  the  Fountain  of  the  Holy  Innocents, 
the  sculptures  of  the  Louvre  palace  on  Pierre  Lescot 's  fa9ade, 
the  vaulting  of  Henry  II's  staircase  and  the  Caryatides  in  the 
great  hall  of  that  name.     These  Caryatides,  which  were  modelled 
more  or  less  on  descriptions  in  Vitruvius,  and  the  rich  store 
358 


CIVILIZATION    UNDER    VALOIS 

of  mythology,  which  provides  the  subjects  of  his  works,  gods 
and  goddesses,  fauns,  nymphs,  dolphins,  tritons  and  naiads, 
prove  that  Goujon  was  certainly  a  pupil  of  antiquity,  though 
it  is  probable  that  he  may  have  gone  to  antiquity  by  way  of 
the  Italian  Renaissance.  But  how  truly  French  he  is  in  his 
grace,  his  delicacy,  his  discreet  and  sterling  elegance  !  Faithful 
to  truth  rather  than  to  realism,  he  fashioned  the  women  of  his 
day,  who  are  at  once  recognizable,  and  upon  whom  he  bestowed 
the  supple  lines  so  characteristic  of  his  genius.  Lescot  probably 
played  some  part  in  designing  the  sculptural  decoration  of  the 
fagade  of  the  Louvre,  but  Goujon's  share  in  it  was  nevertheless 
considerable,  and  reveals  a  nice  instinct  for  ornamentation  by 
means  of  sculpture,  the  consummate  tact  and  taste  of  the  great 
artist,  and  his  skill  in  adapting  himself  to  certain  prescribed 
conditions  in  order  to  produce  a  harmonious  whole. 

Germain   Pilon   remained    more   frankly   true   to   realistic 

traditions.     He  was  a  Parisian  workman  and  was  born  in  1535. 

Germain  Pilon.  His  talent  placed  him  above  all  rivalry.     He  was 

the  favourite  sculptor  of  Charles  IX,  who  gave  him  a  studio 

in  the  Hotel  de  Nesle.     Commissions  poured  in  upon  him  and 

Catherine  de'  Medici  in  particular  secured  his  services  for  the 

Valois  chapel,  a  large  round  building  with  two  tiers  of  columns, 

which,  in  imitation  of  the  Medici  chapel  in  Florence,  the  Queen 

built   against  the  south  transept  of  the  church  of  Saint-Denis, 

as  a  sanctuary  for  the  tombs  of  the  Valois.      It  was  never 

finished,  however,  and  has  since  been  pulled  down.     It  was  a 

building  almost  purely  Italian  in  style,  in  the  construction  of 

which  Lescot,   Bullant,   and  du  Cerceau  all    took  part  under 

various   conditions.     Pilon   was   entrusted   with  the  tomb   of 

Henry  II,  which  is  still  in  existence,  and  for  which,  between 

the  years  of  1565  and  1583,  he  certainly  made  the  kneeling 

figures  of  the  King  and  Queen,  clad  in  their  royal  robes,  the 

recumbent  bodies  of  the  deceased,  and  the  four  bronze  figures 

at  the  corners  of  the  monument.  Faith,  Temperance,  Prudence, 

and  Justice,  allegorical  representations  in  the  antique  manner. 

But,  turning  from  this,  how  consummate  is  the  realism  with 

which  he  portrays  the  dead  bodies  of  the  princes,  how  crude 

and  relentless  is  the  rendering,  yet  how  skilful  and  artistic  ; 

with  what  precision  too,  with  what  strict  and  minute  observance 

359 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

of  truth  is  the  modelling  of  the  royal  costume  carried  out  !  If 
in  the  famous  Three  Graces  made  by  him  for  the  shrine  designed 
to  contain  the  heart  of  Henry  III,  the  idealism  so  dear  to  Greece 
and  the  Italian  Renaissance  is  more  apparent,  the  statues  of 
Birague  and  his  wife  carved  for  their  tomb  reveal,  on  the  con- 
trary, the  sense  of  life  in  all  its  vigour.  And  what  shall  we  say 
of  the  busts,  and  more  especially  the  medallions,  by  Germain 
Pilon,  representing  all  the  Valois  Kings,  marvels  of  admirable 
precision,  of  startling  vitality,  and  of  elegant  art.  He  was  one 
of  the  most  remarkable  artists  France  has  produced. 

A  man  who  is  far  less  well  known,  but  deserves  greater 
recognition  than  he  has  received  is  Pierre  Bontemps,  who  carved 
the  bas-reliefs  on  the  tomb  of  Francis  I  at  Saint  Denis,  a  work 
Pierre  which  is  excellent  in  every  respect,  and  in  which 

Bontemps.  the  correctness  of  detail  in  the  battle-scenes,  the 
costumes,  the  movements  and  gestures  is  consummate  in  its 
realism,  though  it  is  not  in  the  somewhat  brutal  style  of  the 
Middle  Ages,  but  has  a  supple  and  orderly  ease  and  freedom. 
Pierre  Bontemps  is  neither  Roman  nor  Italian.  Almost  nothing 
was  known  about  him  until  Monsieur  M.  Roy  discovered  some 
references  to  his  work. 

If  sculpture  is  well  represented  in  the  second  half  of  the 
sixteenth  century — and  we  have  not  even  mentioned  the 
Painting.  infinite  number  of  decorative   details,    bas-reliefs, 

&c.,  which  are  to  be  found  on  all  the  buildings,  revealing 
the  talent  of  more  than  one  unknown  artist — painting  on  the 
other  hand  makes  but  a  scanty  show.  Whether  because  few 
were  produced  or  because  many  were  destroyed,  France  is  very 
poor  in  pictures  of  this  period.  Those  that  survive  are  not 
signed.  But  such  as  they  are,  they  are  closely  allied  to  the 
chalk  drawings  of  the  period,  which  on  the  other  hand,  are 
extremely  numerous,  and  are  chiefly  portraits,  unfortunately 
also  unsigned.  A  few  names  of  artists  are  recorded — the  two 
Jean  Cousins,  for  example.  But  the  majority  of  the  works 
attributed  to  them  are  by  no  means  indubitable,  and,  as  a 
matter  of  fact,  almost  nothing  is  known  about  them.  The 
The  Clouets.  most  famous  of  all  was  Fran9ois  Clouet  surnamed 
Janet.  Frangois  Clouet  was  probably  born  about  1520  and 
died  in  1572.  He  was  the  son  of  Jean  Clouet,  painter  to 
360 


CIVILIZATION    UNDERVALOIS 

Francis  I.  He  had  a  great  vogue,  received  the  honorary  title 
of  groom  of  the  chamber  to  the  King,  and  was  attached  to 
the  courts  of  Henry  II,  Francis  II  and  Charles  IX.  He  made 
numerous  portraits  of  these  monarchs  as  well  as  of  other  members 
of  the  royal  family,  and  the  lords  and  great  men  of  the  realm. 
A  considerable  number  of  chalk  drawings  by  him  have  been 
preserved,  more  especially  those  carried  out  in  three  colours. 
It  is  true  that  he  founded  a  school— or  that  he  followed  a 
fashion  ;  for  chalk  drawings  of  this  kind  and  period  are  very 
numerous.  It  is  not  easy  to  say  which  of  these  are  to  be 
attributed  to  him  and  which  to  his  imitators.  These  portraits 
are  remarkable  for  sincerity  and  accuracy.  They  are  very 
French,  often  charming  in  their  vivacity,  and  sometimes  ex- 
traordinarily forcible.  Their  simplicity  and  realism  would 
link  them  with  the  old  Gothic  school  did  not  a  certain  fine 
sobriety  and  discreet  elegance  temper  all  that  was  uncouth 
in  the  old  style. 

To  this  school  belongs  Corneille  de  Lyon,  who  also  drew 
portraits  of  the  same  type  as  Clouet.  But  his  works  are  even 
Corneille  de  more    difficult    to    identify,    although    experts 

Lyon.  believe  they  can   distinguish  the   difference   in 

style  between  the  two.  The  qualities  they  possess,  however,  are 
identical,  and  are  common  to  all  the  artists  who  produced 
portraits  of  this  nature.  They  form  an  unrivalled  gallery, 
both  from  the  point  of  view  of  portraiture  and  of  art,  and 
illustrate  the  history  of  the  sixteenth  century  in  a  manner  which 
few  other  centuries  can  parallel. 

It  would  be  interesting  to  have  more  information  than  we 
actually  possess  about  an  art  that  flourished  in  the  sixteenth 
Tapestry.  century,  the  art  of  tapestry-making.     We  have 

already  seen  how  indispensable  Catherine  de'  Medici  and  other 
great  personages  considered  it,  to  have  not  only  numerous  but 
exceedingly  beautiful  specimens  of  tapestry  in  their  houses. 
The  walls  were  covered  with  these  tapestries,  which  were  fre- 
quently changed  in  order  to  vary  the  look  of  the  rooms.  They 
were  chiefly  foreign  products  woven  for  the  most  part  in 
Flanders,  at  Brussels,  Valenciennes,  Tournay,  Ghent  and 
Bruges.  Francis  I  made  numerous  purchases  in  these  dis- 
tricts and  bought  amongst  others,  a  "  grand  history  of  Scipio  " 

361 


CENTURY    OF   THE    RENAISSANCE 

consisting  of  twenty-two  pieces.  It  cost  40,000  livres  and 
Catherine  de'  Medici  had  it  brought  in  1565  to  the  Conferences 
at  Bayonne,  where  it  was  much  admired.  These  Flemish 
hangings  depicted  either  subjects  reproduced  from  Itahan 
works  of  art,  such  as  the  pictures  of  GiuHo  Romano  and  Raphael, 
or  scenes  from  real  life  such  as  hunting-parties,  landscapes, 
and  battles  of  the  day.  The  making  of  tapestry,  which  was  an 
extremely  prosperous  industry  in  France  during  the  fourteenth 
and  fifteenth  centuries,  was  less  so  at  the  beginning  of  the 
sixteenth.  The  Kings  tried  to  revive  it.  Francis  I  had  a 
factory  installed  at  Fontainebleau,  and  Henry  II  followed  his 
example  in  Paris.  It  was  in  this  Parisian  factory  that  the 
famous  tapestry  belonging  to  Catherine  de'  Medici,  called 
the  Artemis  tapestry,  was  woven  about  1570.  There  was 
also  a  factory  at  Tours.  The  French  sixteenth-century  tapestries 
are  extremely  decorative,  and  are  conspicuous  for  their  variety 
of  tones  blended  into  a  harmonious  whole,  as  well  as  for  their 
great  wealth  of  colour;  their  mjrthological  subjects,  gods 
and  goddesses,  classical  stories  with  chariots  and  temples, 
and  borders  displaying  arabesques  in  the  Italian  style,  their 
realistic  subjects,  balls  of  the  period,  receptions,  fetes,  pastoral 
scenes,  and  hunting-parties  containing  fairly  faithful  portraits, 
also  show  the  influence  of  the  two-fold  inspiration  that  domi- 
nated the  art  of  the  period. 

The  enamel  work  of  the  sixteenth  century  won  a  greater 
reputation.  Limoges  was  the  centre  of  production  for  these 
Enamels.  famous   and   beautiful  works   of    art,    of    which 

France  has  preserved  a  fair  number  of  specimens.  This  town 
possessed  a  class  of  skilful  and  tasteful  craftsmen,  who  carried 
on  the  profession  from  father  to  son — the  Courteys,  the  Rey- 
monds,  and  the  Penicauds.  The  best  known  of  them  all  was 
Leonard  Limousin,  upon  whom  the  Kings  conferred  the  title 
of  groom  of  the  chamber  and  of  "  painter -in-ordinary  and 
enameller  to  the  King."  The  Galerie  d'Apollon  in  the  Louvre 
exhibits  samples  of  his  work,  enamels  of  a  truly  admirable 
purity  and  evenness  of  tone.  In  this  case  again,  we  find  the 
customary  dual  range  of  subjects — mythological  and  classical 
scenes,  heroes  from  Plutarch,  and  Olympian  deities  against 
backgrounds  borrowed  from  Roman  buildings,  side  by  side 
362 


CIVILIZATION    UNDER    VALOIS 

with  contemporary  portraits  of  historical  personages  and  others. 
The  latter  are  less  supple  than  those  of  Clouet  and  of  his  school, 
and  less  vital,  though  they  are  treated  with  a  realistic  atten- 
tion to  correct  detail.  About  one  hundred  and  thirty  enamel 
portraits  of  his  contemporaries  by  Leonard  Limousin  are  still 
in  existence. 

A  great  deal  of  stained  glass  was  made  during  the  Renais- 
sance in  France,  much  of  which  has  been  preserved.  It  is 
Stained  glass,  regarded  as  inferior  to  that  produced  in  pre- 
ceding periods  by  reason  of  its  profusion  of  details  and  figures, 
which  from  the  distance  gives  an  impression  of  confusion, 
and  the  predominance  or  too  frequent  use  of  white,  which  blurs 
and  confuses  the  general  effect.  These  stained  glass  windows, 
however,  when  taken  in  detail,  are  remarkable  for  the  beauty 
of  their  gradations  of  colour,  their  varied  and  exact  drawing, 
and  their  great  wealth  of  tones,  which  are  more  numerous  than 
before,  though,  given  the  style,  this  is  not  necessarily  a  sign  of 
progress.  Some  of  the  colours  too  are  extremely  beautiful. 
The  subjects  are  either  religious  when  used  in  churches,  or, 
as  in  the  case  of  the  set  of  grisaille  windows  at  ficouen  repre- 
senting the  story  of  Psyche  from  designs  by  Michael  Coxcie, 
they  show  the  influence  of  prevalent  fashion. 

And  finally,  in  this  all  too  rapid  sketch  of  the  arts  under  the 
House  of  Valois,  some  mention  must  be  made  of  music.  The 
Music.  people  of  the  sixteenth  century  were  extremely 

fond  of  music  and  employed  it  in  every  form,  both  grave  and 
gay — the  church  music  of  the  Catholics,  the  psalm  tunes  of  the 
Protestants,  the  dance  and  ballet  tunes  of  Court  festivities, 
and  the  songs  of  the  people.  The  Pleiadc,  as  we  have  seen, 
considered  that  poetry  would  gain  by  bemg  associated  with 
music,  and  the  Academic  du  Palais  was  founded  with  the 
object  of  organising  this  association.  Marot  made  a  verse 
translation  of  the  Psalms  in  order  that  they  might  be  set  to 
music.  Under  the  influence  of  Catherine  de'  Medici,  who  gave 
regular  concerts  several  times  a  week,  her  sons,  and  more 
especially  Charles  IX,  developed  a  liking  for  music.  Their 
favourite  form  of  the  art  was  dance-music.  They  danced  a 
great  deal,  in  ironic  contrast  with  the  tragic  nature  of  the 
times  in  which  they  lived.     These  sixteenth-century  dances, 

363 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

the  pavane  and  other  slow  and  stately  measures,  in  which  the 
couples  had  to  perform  the  various  evolutions  with  grace, 
suppleness,  and  elegance,  constituted  a  delicate  art  which 
required  distinction  in  the  execution.  The  music  for  them 
was  by  turns  soft  and  slow  or  fast  and  lively — varied,  in  short. 
A  certain  refined  form  of  dancing — ^the  ballet — had  a  great 
vogue  at  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century — a  vogue  which  lasted 
on  into  the  next  century.  Attempts  had  already  been  made 
in  Italy  to  produce  pastoral  plays  the  text  of  which  was  inter- 
spersed with  songs.  The  ballet  is  a  sort  of  opera  representing 
a  certain  theme  developed  by  a  series  of  scenes  that  are  sung, 
acted,  or  danced.  The  most  celebrated  of  these  ballets  was 
the  one  produced  by  Balthazar d  Beaujoyeux  in  1581,  in  honour 
of  the  marriage  of  the  Duke  of  Joyeuse,  and  called  "  The  Queen's 
Comic  Ballet."  From  this  time  forward  the  French  Kings 
of  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  and  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth 
century  had  a  ballet  performed  every  Shrove -tide,  an  extremely 
complicated,  gorgeous,  and  expensive  entertainment. 

Balthazard  Beaujoyeux  was  an  Italian  whose  real  name 
was  Baldassarini ;  but  he  lived  for  a  long  time  in  France. 
Goudimel.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  great  French  musicians 

of  the  sixteenth  century  were  to  a  certain  extent  foreigners. 
Orlando  de  Lassus  and  Willaert  were  Flemish,  whilst  Goudimel 
was  a  native  of  Franche-Comte,  a  province  which  at  that  time 
was  Spanish.  He  may,  however,  be  regarded  as  a  Frenchman, 
and  he  was  certainly  a  very  great  musician.  He  was  a 
Protestant,  or  suspected  of  Protestantism,  for  he  was  killed 
at  Lyons  during  the  Massacre  of  Saint  Bartholomew  in  1572. 
He  had  lived  in  Rome  and  had  kept  a  school  there  which 
produced  Palestrina.  His  masses,  motets,  and  psalm  tunes — 
it  was  he  who  wrote  the  chants  for  Marot's  verses — are  remark- 
able for  the  purity  of  their  harmony.  But  in  the  domain 
of  church  music  the  transformation  was  destined  to  come 
from  Italy  and  the  genius  of  Palestrina,  whose  Mass  of  Pope 
Marcellus  dates  from  1565.  Fugue  and  counterpoint  were 
the  two  great  elements  in  the  method  of  this  new  school ; 
whilst  the  writers  of  songs,  like  Costeley  and  Orlando  de  Lassus, 
remained  true  to  free  and  spontaneous  inspiration  with  its 
original  and  varied  forms.  And  thus  in  music  as  in  all  the 
364 


CIVILIZATION    UNDER    VALOIS 

other  arts  of  the  sixteenth  century  we  find  a  constant  duaHsm 
— learned  and  studied  forms  side  by  side  with  the  free  and 
natural  play  of  instinctive  talent. 

Sources.  Lettres  de  Catherine  de  MMids,  ed.  La  Ferriere  and  Bague- 
nault  de  Puchesse  ;  de  Thou,  Histoire  universelle,  1734  ;  Et.  Pasquier, 
Recherches  de  la  France,  1561  ;  Brantome,  CEuvres  completes,  ed.  Lalanne  ; 
Tommaseo,  Relations  des  ambassadeurs  vinitiens,  1838  ;  Alberi,  Relazioni 
degli  ambasciatori  Veneti  al  senato,  1839  ;  A.  du  Cerceau,  Les  plus  excellens 
bastimens  de  France,  1576  ;  Les  toilettes  d'Eleonore  d'Autriche  (in  Revue 
des  Sodetds  savantes  des  ddpartements,  1876)  ;  de  Montegut,  Inventaire 
des  bijoux  de  Jeanne  de  Bourdeille  dame  de  Sainte-Aulaire  en  1595,  1881  ; 
E.  Bonnafe,  Inventaire  des  meubles  de  Catherine  de  Medicis  en  1589,  1874  ; 
Lettres  et  devis  de  Philibert  Delorme  relatifs  a  la  construction  du  chdteau  de 
Chenonceaux,  by  Chevalier,  1864. 

Works.  H.  Lemonnier,  Les  origines  de  Vart  classique  en  France  au 
XVI^  siecle  (in  Revue  universitaire,  1895)  ;  Petit  de  Julleville,  Histoire 
de  la  langue  et  de  la  litt&rature  frangaises,  vol.  iii,  1897  ;  Darmesteter  and 
Hatzfeld,  Le  XVI  siecle  en  France,  1883  ;  E.  Bourciez,  Les  moeurs  polies 
et  la  litt&ature  de  cour  sous  Henri  II,  1886  ;  E.  Fremy,  UAcadimie  des 
derniers  Valois,  1887  ;  Glasson,  Histoire  du  droit  et  des  institutions  de  la 
France,  vol.  viii,  1903  ;  Palustre,  U Architecture  de  la  Renaissance,  1860  ; 
and  La  Renaissance  en  France,  1879-1885  ;  Geymiiller,  Geschichte  der 
Baukunst  der  Renaissance  in  Frankreich,  1896  ;  A.  Berty,  Les  grands 
architects  de  la  Renaissance,  1860  ;  and  Topographic  historique  du  vieux 
Paris,  le  Louvre  et  les  Tuileries,  1866  ;  Louis  Batiffol,  Le  Louvre  et  les 
plans  de  Lescot  {Gazette  des  Beaux-Arts,  1910)  ;  F.  Bournon,  Blois,  Cliam- 
bord  et  les  chdteaux  du  BUsois,  1908  ;  Gonse,  La  Sculpture  frangaise  depuis 
le  XIV^  siMe,  1895  ;  H.  Bouchot,  Les  Clotiet  et  Corneille  de  Lyon,  1892 
E.  Moreau-Nelaton,  Les  Clouet,  peintres  officiels  des  rois  de  France,  1908 
and  Les  freres  du  Monstier,  peintres  de  la  reine  Catherine  de  Mddicis,  1908 
J.  Guiffirey,  Histoire  de  la  tapisserie,  1886  ;  L.  Boudry  and  E.  Lachenaud 
Leonard  Limousin,  1897  ;  O.  Merson,  Les  Vitraux,  1889  ;  H.  Expert, 
Les  maitres  musiciens  de  la  Renaissance  frangaise,  1894  ;  E.  Lavisse, 
Histoire  de  France  (the  chapters  on  the  Renaissance  written  by  H.  Lemon- 
nier) ;  M.  Roy,  Le  sculpteur  Pierre  Bontemps,  1911  ;  and,  Les  deux  Jean 
Cousin,  1909, 


865 


CHAPTER  X 

THE  KINGDOM  OF  FRANCE  ABOUT  1600 

Impression  of  prosperity  produced  by  France  upon  foreign 
visitors.  The  kingdom  had  no  written  constitution  but  only 
traditional  customs.  The  theory  of  the  absolute  power  of  the 
King.  The  dense  and  complex  growth  of  national  administration, 
according  to  Figon.  The  people  surroimding  the  King  :  the  King's 
councils,  the  Chancellor  of  France,  the  Superintendent  of  Finances, 
the  Secretaries  of  State.  The  coiuitless  multitude  of  royal  officials 
in  the  provinces.  Judicial  officers  :  the  Grand  Council,  the  Parlia- 
ments, bailiffs  and  seneschals,  presidial  courts,  inferior  royal 
judges  and  seignorial  judges  ;  special  jurisdictions.  The  finance 
officials  ;  system  of  raising  the  taxes  ;  Savings  Department 
{U  Epargne)  in  Paris  :  the  financial  division  of  France  into  generali- 
ties, elections  and  parishes  ;  the  finance  agents  ;  the  numerous  and 
complicated  taxes  paid  by  the  people  ;  the  budget  of  1600.  The 
expenditure  ;  strictness  with  which  the  public  accoimts  were  kept ; 
the  Exchequer  Court.  The  administration  ;  governors  of  provinces 
and  local  governors.  Municipalities.  The  Army  and  Navy;  the 
French  people  in  1600  and  their  three  Estates — the  Clergy,  the 
Nobility,  and  the  Third  Estate. 

(HE  France  of  the  reign  of  Henry  IV  was,  as  far  as 
extent  of  domain  was  concerned,  pretty  much  the  same 
as  the  France  of  to-day,  save  that  its  somewhat 
sinuous  frontier  Hne  left  in  the  hands  of  foreigners  Artois, 
Cambresis,  the  Duchy  of  Bar,  Lorraine — with  the  excep- 
Impression  tion  of  the  enclaves  of  Metz,  Toul  and  Verdun, 
of  prosperity  an^j  the  small  territory  surrounding  these  places 
France  on  — *^^  whole  of  Franche-Comte,  Savoy,  the  county 

foreign  ^^    Nice,   Comtat-Venaissin  and  Roussillon.     In 

visitors.  spite  of  the  turmoil  of  the  civil  wars  and  the 

results  they  left  behind  them,  she  impressed  strangers  who 
visited  the  country  as  a  "  rich  and  powerful  "  land.  She 
had  a  large  population,  the  exact  figures  of  which,  however, 
366 


KINGDOM   OF   FRANCE   ABOUT   1600 

are  not  known.  Michel  Suriano  estimated  the  inhabitants  of 
Paris  at  500,000  ;  Davila  at  800,000.  Travellers  remarked 
that  the  number  of  densely  populated  towns  was  very  large, 
and  that  the  villages  were  close  together  and  contained  a  con- 
siderable number  of  inhabitants.  "  The  multitude  of  people 
is  everywhere  so  great,"  wrote  a  certain  visitor  to  France,  "and 
the  towns  and  country  places  so  well  populated,  that  the 
ground  is  constantly  under  cultivation,  and  every  trade  and 
mechanical  art  is  well  supplied."  And,  indeed,  if  the  books 
of  a  country  scrivener  or  notary  of  the  end  of  the  sixteenth 
century  are  consulted,  the  certificates  of  the  various  transactions 
show  that  the  land  was  most  minutely  parcelled  out  and 
apportioned.  There  was  scarcely  a  single  "  working  trades- 
man "  or  "  manual  labourer  "  who  did  not  possess  his  own 
plot  of  ground  and  enclosure,  together  with  a  house  of  two  or 
three  gables  thatched  or  tiled,  a  courtyard,  a  little  back  garden 
and  a  certain  amount  of  arable  land,  an  acre,  a  rood  or  two. 
He  paid  quit -rent,  ground-rent,  and  mutation  fines,  all  signs 
of  the  feudal  tenure  of  his  land  and  proofs  that  it  was  held  in 
fief  or  from  a  lord  of  the  manor.  But,  apart  from  this,  a 
peasant  owned  and  cultivated  his  property  in  precisely  the 
same  way  as  the  French  peasant  of  to-day.  He  worked  hard 
and  was  thrifty,  and  thus  managed  to  live  easily  enough. 

Travellers  such  as  Erpenius,  Jodocus  Sincerus,  Scamberg, 
Abraham  Golnitz,  GofTridus  Hegenitius  and  others,  have  de- 
scribed the  things  that  constituted  the  wealth  of  France.  Palma 
Cayet  before  them  had  already  pointed  out  that  the  country 
abounded  in  "  corn,  wine,  oil,  fruit,  vegetables,  and  wood,  in 
addition  to  a  vast  and  luxuriant  supply  of  food  for  cattle  and 
horses."  Corn  was  produced  in  sufficient  quantities  to  allow 
of  its  exportation.  Except  in  Brittany,  Normandy  and 
Picardy,  which  were  cider-drinking  provinces,  wine  was  pro- 
duced throughout  the  country.  The  vintages  of  Argenteuil 
and  Suresnes,  though  they  did  not  rise  much  above  mediocrity, 
were  kno^vn  to  the  Parisians.  The  wines,  however,  that  were 
most  appreciated  were  the  white  wines  of  Anjou,  of  Graves 
at  Bordeaux,  of  Gaillac  and  of  Rabastens  ;  red  Burgundy, 
quantities  of  which  were  sent  to  Paris  ;  and  muscatel  from 
Frontignan,    which   was   a   special   favourite.     The   export   of 

367 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

wine  to  England  and  Germany  was  a  great  source  of  revenue, 
as  was  also  the  export  of  salt.  The  salt  of  Languedoc  and 
Saintonge  was  famous,  and  Flemish  and  Dutch  boats  used  to 
embark  cargoes  of  it  all  along  the  coasts  of  Provence  and 
Poitou.  Provence  and  Languedoc  produced  hemp,  flax,  and  oil. 
Berry  fine  wool,  as  did  also  Normandy,  where  excellent  cloth 
was  made.  The  fruit  grown  in  the  southern  provinces,  and 
especially  in  Provence,  was  famous,  though  not  so  celebrated 
as  woad,  a  plant  used  for  dyeing,  which  formed  the  wealth 
more  especially  of  Languedoc.  As  many  as  200,000  bales  of 
woad  were  exported  annually  from  Bordeaux.  The  cultiva- 
tion of  silkworms  and  mulberries  became  extensive  from  the 
time  of  Henry  IV  onwards.  Almost  everywhere  pasturage 
was  fat  and  good,  and  large  stocks  of  cattle  were  reared.  Horse 
breeding  was  also  carried  on  throughout  the  kingdom,  though 
the  horses  were  not  so  strong  as  those  produced  in  Germany, 
and  heavy  cart  and  carriage  horses  used  to  be  imported  from 
that  country.  Mules  from  Auvergne  and  Gevaudan  were  sold 
to  Spain.  Milk,  butter,  and  cheese  were  articles  of  daily  con- 
sumption. Louis  XIII  was  fond  of  Pont  I'fiveque  cheese, 
and  the  officers  of  his  Swiss  guard  introduced  him  to  the  "  little 
Swiss  "  cheeses.  Capons,  chickens,  and  fowls  of  all  kinds 
filled  the  poultry-yards.  There  was  not  a  peasant  who  did  not 
possess  "  his  pig-sty  "  or  a  wood  that  did  not  abound  in  "  hares, 
rabbits,  partridges  and  field-fares  "  for  the  sportsmen.  Slate 
was  quarried  in  Anjou  and  marble  in  Languedoc  ;  there  were 
iron  mines  in  Auvergne,  coal  in  the  south,  and  mineral  water 
at  Pougues,  Val,  Vichy,  and  Balaruc.  Trade  was  extremely 
brisk.  In  short  France  was  one  of  the  first  countries  in  Europe 
to  exploit  all  the  elements  of  agricultural  and  mineral  wealth 
she  possessed,  and  produced  earUer  than  the  rest  the  average 
density  of  population  corresponding  to  her  pubUc  fortune. 
She  was  rich ;  "  the  sources  of  her  wealth,"  said  one  traveller, 
"  are  inexhaustible." 

For  the  government  and  administration  of  this  great  and 
hard-working  country,  there  was  no  written  constitution 
or  theoretical  organization.  There  were  merely  traditional 
ideas,  old  estabUshed  institutions,  and  habits  and  customs  so 
strong  that  they  were  caUed  laws.  The  central  idea  of  this 
368 


KINGDOM  OF  FRANCE  ABOUT  1600 

political  constitution  based  upon  "  custom,"  was  that  of  the 
*'  absolute  sovereign  "  power  of  the  King. 

"  Our  public  state  of  France,"  wrote  a  certain  jurist  at 
the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century,  "  is  royal,  inasmuch 
The  King's  ^^  ^^  ^he  foremost  place  stands  the  King,  the 
absolute  power,  sole  sovereign  lord,  at  the  head  of  all."  "  The 
King,"  said  another,  "  is  the  chief,  the  source  and  foundation 
of  all  justice  and  government ;  "  which  means  that  in  the 
person  of  the  King  alone  all  judicial  and  administrative 
power  was  vested,  with  the  result  that  anyone  in  the 
kingdom  exercising  a  part  of  one  or  other  of  his  functions, 
did  so  merely  as  a  delegate  or  representative  of  the  monarch, 
who  could  resume  his  rights  at  any  moment.  This  was 
the  legal  theory  in  its  simplest  form.  But  in  practice,  as 
it  was  impossible  for  the  King  to  do  everything  and  be  every- 
where at  once,  he  delegated  the  charge  of  acting  for  him  to 
agents  whom  he  appointed  to  the  various  functions  or  "offices," 
and  who  were  accordingly  called,  not  functionaries  but 
"officers  " — "the  officers  of  the  King,"  as  they  were  termed. 
Five  attributes  of  his  power,  however,  the  King  never  dele- 
gated to  anyone.  These  were :  the  making  of  laws,  the  crea- 
tion of  new  offices,  decisions  of  peace  and  war,  the  right  of 
being  the  final  judge  in  all  judicial  matters,  and  the  privilege 
of  coining  money.  Anybody  who  dared  to  encroach  upon  the 
King's  prerogative  in  these  matters  was  guilty  of  high  treason. 
The  King  made  the  laws.  The  inferior  authorities  could  frame 
regulations  "  to  meet  minor  contingencies,"  as  the  King  was 
not  in  a  position  to  take  cognizance  of  local  details.  But 
these  regulations  were  regarded  as  provisional  "  under  the 
good  pleasure  of  his  Majesty,"  and  were  vaHd  only  within 
the  jurisdiction  of  the  authority  who  promulgated  them.  In 
everything  and  for  everything  the  King  was  supreme  and 
decided  as  he  thought  fit.  "  For  this  is  our  good  will  and 
pleasure  "  was  the  formula  he  used  in  the  name  of  the  right 
conferred  upon  him  by  God. 

This  theory  of  the  royal  power  did  not  escape  vigorous 
attacks  during  the  civil  wars  of  the  sixteenth  century  ;  first, 
in  practice  by  the  revolutionaries ;  secondly,  in  law  by  the 
theorists.     After    the    Massacre    of    Saint    Bartholomew,    the 

2  a  369 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

question  was  raised  as  to  whether  obedience  was  due  to  a  King 
who  had  become  a  tyrant.  The  position  of  heir-presumptive 
to  the  throne  enjoyed  by  the  Protestant  King  Henry  of  Navarre, 
raised  the  problem  as  to  whether  the  country  had  not  the 
right  to  choose  another  sovereign  by  means  of  the  States - 
General,  and  consequently  whether  this  assembly  were  not 
superior  to  the  King.  This  latter  idea  was  not  new.  It  had 
been  brought  forward  by  the  Cabochiens  under  Charles  VI, 
and  also  at  the  meeting  of  the  States  in  1484.  In  refusing  to 
obey  the  King,  first  the  Protestants  and  then  the  Leaguers  had 
given  it  great  strength  and  actuality.  It  seemed  to  be  admitted 
that  the  kingship  was  originally  based  upon  the  will  of  the 
people,  and  that  if  a  monarch  abused  his  rights  he  could  be 
deprived  of  them.  From  this  observation  on  particular  cases 
it  was  easy  to  pass  to  the  very  principle  of  royalty  itself, 
and  certain  publicists  made  a  vigorous  attack  upon  the 
monarchical  idea.  How  could  millions  of  men,  exclaimed 
La  Boetie,  consent  to  submit,  "  to  one  single  mannikin, 
frequently  the  most  cowardly  and  effeminate  person  of  the 
nation  !  "  "  Even  the  animals,"  he  continued,  "  if  men  did 
not  deliberately  ignore  their  cry,  called  out  to  them :  '  Long 
live  liberty  !  '  "  The  movement,  however,  was  premature. 
For,  in  reality,  under  the  spell  of  the  wit  and  ability,  the  good 
humour,  firmness,  prudence  and  skill  of  Henry  IV,  public 
opinion  grew  calmer,  and  settled  down  at  the  end  of  the  century 
into  the  traditional  channels.  The  theory  of  royal  authority  was 
as  clearly  defined  in  1600  as  it  had  ever  been,  and  in  the  writings 
of  jurists  and  the  minds  of  contemporaries,  the  King  remained 
the  supreme  pinnacle  and  keystone  of  the  social  organism. 

At  all  events  this  was  so  in  theory,  though  in  practice  it  was 
different.  Under  Henry  IV  the  absolute  rule  of  the  King  was 
held  in  check  by  a  large  agglomeration  of  passive  forces  :  regu- 
larly constituted  bodies,  traditional  rules,  old  established 
customs,  provincial  or  municipal  privileges,  administrative 
usages,  all  of  them  extremely  ancient  institutions,  that  had 
gained  strength  during  the  preceding  political  anarchy,  and  had 
they  not  been  broken  by  Richelieu  and  Louis  XIV  with  the  tacit 
concurrence  of  public  opinion,  would  have  ensured  a  general 
regime  of  great  variety  and  vitality. 
370 


KINGDOM    OF   FRANCE   ABOUT   1600 

We  are  leaving  the  States-General  out  of  account.  Henry  IV, 
who  mistrusted  them,  refrained  from  convoking  them.  Legally 
The  States-  the  representatives  of  the  three  Estates  of  the  realm 
General.  — the  Clergy,  the  Nobility,  and  the  third  Estate, 

who  were  elected  at  the  command  of  the  provosts  and  viguiers*  on 
the  promulgation  of  a  royal  edict  of  convocation  sent  to  the  Par- 
liaments and  transmitted  by  the  bailiffs  and  seneschals,  and 
thence  to  the  provosts — only  met  for  the  purpose  of  presenting 
their  grievances  to  the  King  in  the  form  of  written  memoranda. 
They  had,  however,  developed  other  pretensions,  which  were 
too  menacing.  Nor  do  we  refer  to  the  vague  and  oft-repeated 
appeal  to  the  "  fundamental  laws  of  the  realm,"  implying  a 
restriction  of  the  "  full  power  and  authority  of  the  King."  Upon 
strict  scrutiny  these  words  point  only  to  three  or  four  uncertain 
traditions — ^the  so-called  Salic  Law,  reduced  to  the  limitation 
of  the  succession  to  the  throne  to  male  heirs  only  ;  the  inalien- 
ability of  the  kingdom  ;  and  the  injunction  that  the  King  must 
be  a  Catholic.  It  was  by  trammels  other  than  these  that  the 
absolute  power  of  the  Crown  was  limited,  "  by  reason  of  the 
imbecility  of  the  counsel,  government,  and  prudence  of  a  single 
man,"  as  the  jurist  La  Roche-Flavin  said.  His  book,  inci- 
dentally, was  condemned.  This  same  La  Roche -Flavin,  in  his 
Treize  livres  des  Parlements  de  France,  explains  that  the  Parlia- 
ments were  instituted  "  in  the  form  of  senates  to  maintain  law 
and  justice  in  full  force  "  and  that,  "  no  edicts  or  ordinances 
were  valid  or  had  the  right  to  demand  obedience,  or  rather  to 
be  regarded  as  edicts  or  ordinances  at  all,  unless  they  were 
ratified  by  the  sovereign  courts  and  by  the  free  deliberations 
of  the  same."  If  a  royal  edict  were  unseemly,  remonstrances 
must  be  addressed  to  the  King  until  he  consented  to  withdraw 
it.  And  thus  in  common  with  many  other  magistrates.  La 
Roche-Flavin  wished  to  make  the  Parliaments  play  the  pre- 
dominant part  in  the  constitution.  But  if  as  a  matter  of  fact 
remonstrance  and  opposition  on  the  part  of  these  bodies  suc- 
ceeded on  more  than  one  occasion  in  checking  the  omnipotence 
of  the  Crown,  Henry  IV  found  means,  more  especially  in  the 
registration  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes,  to  impose  his    decision 

*  A  judge  who  in  Provence  and  Languedoc  performed  the  duties 
fulfilled  by  a  provost  in  other  provinces.     (Tr.) 

371 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

and  to  vindicate  his  strict  right  to  be  supreme.  The  will 
of  the  King  was  law  and  his  word  a  decree.  The  Parliaments, 
by  condemning  La  Roche's  book,  implicitly  condemned  the 
theories  it  contained.  There  is  no  sort  of  principle  to  be  found 
in  the  public  law  of  the  time  implying  that  "  the  monarchy  of 
France  was  not  absolute."  If  it  was  absolute  only  in  theory, 
this  was  due  to  the  fact  that  passive  forces  were  in  practice 
more  powerful  than  the  law.  These  forces  were  represented 
by  the  entire  organization  of  the  kingdom,  its  central,  judicial, 
financial,  provincial  and  local  institutions. 

Charles  de  Figon,  wishing  to  give  some  idea  of  the  organiza- 
tion of  France  in  his  day,  placed  on  the  title-page  of  his  book 
Figon's  symbol  Discours  des  offices  de  France,  which  was  published 
of  the  tree.  in  1579,  the  picture  of  a  great  tree  springing  from 
the  soil.  This  represents  the  King  rising  aloft  by  means 
of  the  trunk,  which  is  the  Chancellor ;  dividing  off  into 
two  main  branches,  the  Parliament  and  the  Court  of  the 
Exchequer  ;  and  then  into  other  smaller  ones — the  treasurers 
of  the  country,  heads  of  the  finance  departments,  the  Court 
of  Aids,  the  Mint,  the  finance  stewards — and  the  whole  once 
more  subdivided  and  shooting  out  tiny  branches  which  are 
interlaced  and  interwoven  and  grafted  one  upon  the  other, 
the  total  giving  a  complete  picture  of  a  bushy  and  complicated 
tree.  The  simile  is  a  fairly  accurate  one.  For  during  the 
course  of  centuries  the  various  institutions  of  France  sprang 
up  in  this  way,  without  any  preconceived  order,  in  accordance 
with  the  necessities  and  demands  of  the  moment,  each  branch 
developing  on  its  own  account  from  a  simple  bud,  some  of  them 
withering  up  to  a  certain  extent  but  never  altogether  disap- 
pearing, the  whole  sprouting  in  picturesque  confusion  involving 
perpetual  conflicts  as  to  scope  and  functions. 

In  the  King's  immediate  neighbourhood  were  his  Majesty's 
councils,  calculated  to  make  the  soil  about  his  roots  more  firm 
State  Councils,  and  stable.  These  furnish  the  first  check  upon  his 
absolutism.  The  King  decided  nothing  without  asking  the  "advice 
of  our  Council."  This  was  a  sensible  restriction,  inasmuch  as 
affairs  of  State  were  so  weighty  that  the  King  needed  all  the  en- 
lightenment to  be  gained  from  men  of  experience.  The  King,  it  is 
372 


KINGDOM   OF   FRANCE   ABOUT   1600 

true,  had  the  power  to  over-rule  the  advice  of  his  Council,  more 
especially  with  regard  to  decisions  he  had  really  at  heart,  but 
during  the  course  of  each  day  he  would  refer  to  it  for  guidance. 
In  so  many  cases,  the  old  administrators,  who  had  a  fundamental 
knowledge  of  the  state  and  its  concerns — men  like  Villeroy, 
Brulart,  and  Bellievre — were    capable    of    supplying    just  and 
reasonable    appreciations.     Who    were    the    members    of    the 
King's  chief  Council  ?     In  theory  it  was  composed  of  princes  of 
the  blood,  cardinals,  dukes,  grand  officers  of  the  Crown  and 
Secretaries    of    State — a    crowd    of    people.     But    in    practice 
only  those  men  were  commanded  to  attend  in  whose  judgment 
the  King  had  confidence,  the  men  who  administered  the  affairs 
of  State— the  Chancellor,  the  Superintendent  of  Finance,  and 
the  Secretaries  of  State.     The  King  summoned  them  to  his 
cabinet  in  the  morning,  or  at  any  other  time  of  day,  when  he 
would  have  the  letters  he  had  received  read  aloud  and  discuss 
them  with  his  advisers,  listening  to  their  opinions,  and  deciding 
upon  the  replies  to  be  sent.     And  frequently  enough  he  merely 
assented  to  some  solution  proposed  by  them.     This  was  the 
Council  of  State,  the  King's  real  Council,  the  one  that  con- 
trolled the  national  policy.     In  addition  to  this  there  was  an- 
other which  dealt  with  minor  questions  connected  with  the 
administration,   such  as  appeals  to  the  King,   who  was  the 
supreme  judge  in  the  realm,  matters  of  dispute  and  details 
which  could  only  be  settled  by  the  so-called  decree  of  the 
Council.     And  indeed,  although  the  right  of  judgment  was  dele- 
gated to  the  Parliaments  and  inferior  magistrates,  the  King 
reserved  to  himself  the  power  of  resuming  his  privilege  should 
the  necessity  arise ;   and  this  Council,  called  the  Privy  Council 
of  State,  exercised  this  function  on  his  behalf,  chiefly,  how- 
ever, in  administrative  concerns  and  matters  of  dispute.     The 
members  of  this  Council,  in  which  all  the  persons  belonging  to 
the  first  Council,  in  addition  to  the  controllers  and  stewards 
of  the  finances  and  other  officials,  to  the  number  of  thirty-three, 
according  to  an  enactment  of  1585,  had  the  right   to   sit — as 
a  matter  of  fact  they  never  attended  in  such  numbers — met 
almost  every  day  round  a  "  table  covered  with  purple  velvet." 
Their  decisions,  which  were  settled  by  a  majority  of  votes,  were 
submitted  to  the  King.      Disputes  in  connexion  with  financial 

373 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

matters  were  treated  separately,  as  they  were  numerous  enough 
to  require  a  special  Council.  This  third  Council,  called  the 
Finance  Council,  sat  on  Tuesdays,  Thursdays,  and  Saturdays, 
from  six  to  half-past  nine  in  the  morning,  and  was  composed 
of  the  Chancellor,  certain  Secretaries  of  State,  and  the  finance 
stewards.  Their  duties  consisted  in  granting  to  the  towns  leave 
to  raise  taxes  in  their  own  jurisdiction,  in  regulating  assign- 
ments for  special  expenditure,  and  in  dealing  with  financial 
requisitions  addressed  to  the  King.  The  register  of  the  en- 
actments of  this  council  have  been  preserved. 

What  was  the  counterpart  at  this  period  of  what  we  now 
know  as  the  ministries  ?  Of  all  the  branches  existing  in  the 
Justice  and  administration  of  to-day  two  only  were  organized 
Finance.  at  this  time — Justice  and  Finance,  the  recognized 

and  official  heads  of  which  were  respectively  the  Chancellor  of 
France  and  the  Superintendent  of  Finance. 

No  important  enactment  made  by  the  King  of  France  was 
valid  unless  it  was  sealed  with  the  seal  of  State.  The  Chancellor 
The  alone  possessed  the  seals  and    sealed    with    his 

Chancellor.  own  hands  —  an  exceptional  prerogative. 
Traditional  custom  forbade  his  dismissal.  The  King  might 
send  him  away  from  Court,  but  he  could  not  deprive  him  of  his 
title.  "  A  temporary  Keeper  of  the  Seals  "  had  to  take  his 
place.  A  great  personage,  clad  in  a  robe  of  crimson  velvet 
with  huge  sleeves  lined  with  red  satin  and  a  silk  sash  of  the  same 
colour,  the  Chancellor  was  the  natural  head  of  all  the  judicial 
bodies  in  the  kingdom.  He  was  assisted  by  Masters  of  Requests 
to  whom  the  charge  of  drawing  up  reports  upon  matters  that 
had  been  submitted  to  the  royal  Council  was  confided.  The 
post  filled  by  these  Masters  of  Requests,  upon  whom  extra- 
ordinary commissions  as  stewards  in  the  provinces  were  con- 
ferred later  was  "  a  fine  office  with  extensive  powers."  The 
Chancellor  was  the  corner-stone  of  the  whole  administration 
of  the  country,  for  various  reasons  rising  out  of  a  confusion 
of  judicial  and  administrative  powers. 

The  Super-  The  Superintendent  of  Finance  was  supreme  in 

intendent  o£  the  control  of  the  public  finances.  He  was  sup- 
Finance.  ported    by    financial    stewards,    men    who    were 

learned  in  the  science  of  finance,  and  had  under  his  orders  a 
374 


KINGDOM   OF   FRANCE   ABOUT    1600 

host  of  agents  who  were  scattered  tlu'ougliout  the  country 
for  the  purpose  of  the  collection,  centralization,  and  despatch 
of  the  money  raised  by  the  taxes. 

Next  to  the  Chancellor  and  the  Superintendent  of  Finance, 
came  the  Secretaries  of  State.  It  is  necessary  to  understand 
Secretaries  of  their  position  at  this  period,  which  was  at  once 
State.  modest     and     important.       In    the     fourteenth 

century  the  Kmg  had  three  secretaries  whose  duty  it  was  to 
receive  and  answer  his  correspondence.  When,  at  the  end 
of  the  fifteenth  century,  one  of  these  "  royal  secretaries  " 
chanced  to  be  Florimond  Robertet,  an  experienced  man  of  great 
intelligence,  well  versed  in  affairs  of  State,  CharlesVIII  learnt 
to  appreciate  his  advice,  and  Louis  XII  and  Francis  I  retained 
the  services  of  so  valuable  a  helper.  And  thus  the  office  was 
virtually  created.  Under  Henry  II  there  were  four  secretaries 
whose  functions  this  monarch  defined  by  an  edict  of  September 
14, 1547.  They  examined  the  correspondence  and  "  dispatched  " 
aft'airs  of  state.  In  order  to  avoid  confusion,  they  divided 
France  into  four  quarters,  and  each  dealt  with  the  questions 
connected  with  the  provinces  in  his  division  and  the  foreign 
countries  adjoining  them.  Thus  one  had  Normandy  and 
Picardy  together  with  England  and  Flanders ;  the  second 
Provence,  Languedoc,  Guyenne  and  Brittany  together  with 
Spain  ;  the  third.  Champagne  and  Burgundy  with  Germany, 
Switzerland  and  Savoy  ;  and  the  fourth,  Dauphiny  and  Lyons 
with  Rome,  Venice,  and  the  Levant.  The  four  departments 
were  not  equal  in  importance.  Henry  III  considered  it  advan- 
tageous to  centralize  foreign  affairs  generally  in  the  hands  of 
one  of  the  four,  and  matters  connected  with  war  in  the  hands 
of  another.  This  was  the  object  of  the  Edict  of  Blois  of  January 
1,  1549.  Here  we  have  the  modern  ministerial  system  in 
embryo.  Matters  were  still  in  this  condition  in  1600.  Louis 
XIII's  regulations  of  1619,  and  above  all  of  1626,  had  to  come 
before  the  centrahzation  of  foreign  affairs  and  of  questions  of 
war  was  definitely  completed,  and  even  after  this  the  secretaries 
concerned  still  continued  to  take  cognizance  of  all  that  all'ected 
their  quarter  of  the  country  These  "  Secretaries  of  State  and 
Command,"  as  they  were  called,  were  often  men  of  the  middle 
classes,  who  earned  a  salary  of  50,000  francs  a  year  in  the  exer- 

375 


CENTURY    OF    THE   RENAISSANCE 

cise  of  their  functions.  They  had  a  beautiful  uniform — a  cloak 
of  violet  velvet  slashed  to  the  bottom  of  the  right  side  and 
lined  ^vith  crimson  taffetas,  and  a  black  velvet  cap.  To  all 
appearance  merely  ordinary  scribes,  they  were  in  reality,  next 
to  the  Chancellor,  the  most  important  personages  in  the  kingdom. 
They  drew  up  the  memoranda  and  instructions  for  the  ambas- 
sadors, and  the  credentials  of  the  provincial  Governors,  and 
informed  everybody  of  the  King's  will  and  the  decisions  of  the 
Council  of  State.  There  was  not  a  single  government  secret 
which  they  did  not  share.  Every  public  letter  dictated  by  the 
King  had  to  be  endorsed  by  them  in  order  to  be  valid,  and  this 
even  went  so  far  that  their  signature  alone  was  of  importance, 
and  the  King's  autograph  was  in  the  end  imitated  by  some 
copyist.  And  thus  we  find  them  on  the  high  road  to  that 
omnipotence  to  which  such  violent  exception  was  taken  in  the 
eighteenth  century.  They  had  a  few  clerks  under  them,  but 
possessed  no  office,  archives,  or  public  building. 

Such  are  the  rough  outlines  of  the  central  government. 
To  the  above  offices  must  be  added  those  of  the  Constable  and 
the  Admiral.  But  as  these  functions  were  more  or  less  restricted 
to  the  army  and  the  navy,  we  will  return  to  them  later  on. 
The  government  played  but  a  small  part  in  the  King's  large 
Court,  which  existed  chiefly  for  the  sovereign's  personal  service. 
By  the  side  of  the  crowd  of  gorgeous  functionaries  who  sur- 
rounded his  Majesty — ^the  Grand  Master  of  the  Household, 
the  Lord  High  Chamberlain,  the  First  Lord  of  the  Bedchamber, 
the  Chief  Butler,  the  Chief  Pantler,  the  Chief  Cupbearer,  the 
Master  of  the  Horse,  the  Master  of  the  Hounds,  the  Master  of 
the  Robes,  &c.,  with  their  subordinates  and  others,  numbering 
altogether  in  1601, 1041  persons  and  in  1589,  1725 — the  counsel- 
lors and  Secretaries  of  State,  and  even  the  Chancellor  himself, 
shine  with  less  brilliance,  and  seem  colourless  and  circumspect 
creatures.  But  they  toiled  industriously,  and  beneath  them 
laboured  the  huge  army  of  royal  officials  in  the  provinces. 

And  just  as  the  Chancellor  was  the  most  important  of  the 
The  ministers,  so  too  the  most  numerous  and  powerful 

Magistrature.     of  the  officials  were  the  magistrates. 

It  amounted  almost  to  a  principle  of  public  law  under 
the  old  regime  that  all  judicial  authority  should  carry  with 
376 


KINGDOM   OF   FRANCE   ABOUT   1600 

it  certain  administrative  powers,  and  that  all  administrative 
offices  should  entail  certain  judicial  functions  ;  a  mixture  and 
confusion  of  powers  which  a  certain  seventeenth-century  jurist 
explained  by  saying :  "  The  magistracy  stands  above  every- 
thing, because  the  aim  and  end  of  the  public  administration 
includes  within  itself  the  aims  and  ends  of  all  the  others."  Hence 
it  came  about  that  in  France  there  were  almost  as  many  judges 
as  royal  officials,  and  heaven  knows  that  they  were  numerous 
enough,  "  there  being  no  State  in  the  world  that  hath  so  many 
officials  of  all  kinds  as  the  kingdom  of  France  !  "  Any  private 
individual  who  possessed  the  smallest  manor  had  a  right  of 
high,  medium,  or  petty  jurisdiction  within  it.  The  tiniest 
village  which  to-day  might  boast  a  single  functionary  in  the 
person  of  a  modest  teacher,  possessed  at  this  period  a  royal  or 
manorial  provost,  his  assessor,  a  representative  of  the  Procu- 
rator-General, and  an  usher  or  sergeant.  From  the  King,  the 
supreme  magistrate  of  the  realm,  whose  fundamental  office  was 
represented  by  the  main  de  justice,  down  to  the  smallest  feudal 
bailiff,  France  was  covered  with  an  endless  net-work  of  jurisdic- 
tions which  formed  the  real  state  organization  for  the  main- 
tenance of  public  order. 

In  the  olden  days  the  first  Capet  Kings  used  to  dispense 
justice  in  person  ;  Saint  Louis,  for  example,  at  Vincennes  seated 
Justice  under  ^^  ^^^^  ^oot  of  a  tree.  The  increase  of  public 
the  early  business,  however,  put  an  end  to  this  patriarchal 

Capets.  custom,  and  the  council    of    clerks,  who    helped 

the  King,  constituted  themselves  into  a  regular  judicial  court — 
the  Parliament,  which  became  free  and  independent.  The 
King,  however,  still  reserved  to  himself  the  right  of  judging 
certain  cases.  The  second  small  body  of  clerks  and  jurists 
which  he  formed  about  him  in  order  that  they  might  explain 
these  cases  to  him,  in  their  turn  also  constituted  a  new  court, 
deatched  themselves  from  the  King,  and  formed  an  organization 
of  their  own,  becoming  the  Grand  Council.  We  have  already 
The  Grand  seen  how,  even  after  this,  the  King  reserved  to 
Council.  himself  the  right  of  participation  in  certain  trials 

which  were  brought  before  the  Council  of  State.  Thus  the  various 
branches  of  judicial  administration  gradually  sprouted  from 
the  royal  trunk.     Compared  with  those  of    the  Parliaments, 

377 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

the  functions  of  the  Grand  Council  were  somewhat  uncertain. 
The  four  presidents  and  the  various  counsellors  belonging  to  it 
took  cognizance  more  especially  of  the  differences  that  arose 
between  the  principal  jurisdictions  of  the  kingdom,  those  which 
were  called  the  sovereign  courts  by  reason  of  their  "  ends  and 
limits."  They  also  took  cognizance  of  certain  appeals  deter- 
mined by  an  edict  of  Henry  II  of  September,  1567  ;  of  "  con- 
flicting decrees  ;  "  and  above  all,  of  matters  connected  with 
archbishoprics,  bishoprics,  and  abbeys.  Notwithstanding  its 
high  sounding  title  the  Grand  Council  played  a  minor  part, 
the  Parliaments  having  seized  on  every  function  of  importance 
in  this  connexion. 

A  country  visitor  coming  to  Paris  for  the  first  time  must 
certainly  have  felt  moved  when,  in  the  Rue  de  la  Barillerie, 
The  he   passed   through   the    somewhat    low    arched 

Parliaments.  door  leading,  in  front  of  the  Sainte  Chapelle, 
into  the  Cour  de  Mai,  round  which  rose  the  various  buildings 
of  the  Palace  belonging  to  the  ancient  Parliament  of  Paris. 
His  emotion  must  have  redoubled  when  after  crossing  the  great 
hall  of  the  procurators — the  Salle  des  Pas  perdus,  an  old 
building  with  double  Gothic  aisles,  dating  from  the  time  of 
Saint  Louis,  adorned  with  statues  of  the  French  Kings  in 
carved  wood — he  entered  the  Grand  Court,  and,  on  some  day 
of  solemn  audience,  gazed  upon  the  two  hundred  magistrates 
of  the  chief  sovereign  tribunal  in  the  realm,  clad  m  their  red 
robes,  an  illustrious  and  imposing  assembly  filled  with  a  con- 
sciousness of  its  own  dignity  and  rights,  and  at  once  respected 
and  feared  by  the  subjects  whose  lives  and  goods  it  held  in  its 
power,  as  well  as  by  the  King  to  whose  will  it  opposed,  under 
the  archaic  and  impersonal  form  of  rigid  decrees,  the  formidable 
mass  of  law,  justice,  and  tradition.  As  compared  with  the 
seven  other  Parliaments,  those  of  Toulouse,  Bordeaux,  Rouen, 
Aix,  Grenoble,  Dijon,  and  Rennes,  the  Parliament  of  Paris  was 
the  most  illustrious  and  most  ancient.  Toulouse,  which  ranked 
next  to  Paris  in  age  and  importance,  consisted  of  about  a 
hundred  magistrates. 

The  two  hundred  magistrates  of  Paris  only  met  at  a  general 
assembly  for  cases  of  extreme  importance  "  the  greatest  and 
most  weighty  affairs  concerning  the  State  and  the  public 
378 


KINGDOM   OF   FRANCE    ABOUT   1600 

weal,"  the  ratification  of  edicts,  the  reception  of  magistrates, 
mercurial  sessions,  the  drawing  up  of  ordinances,  and  debates 
on  the  affairs  of  the  kingdom.  For  although  the  Parliaments  had 
orginally  been  created  for  the  administration  of  justice  alone, 
"it  is  nevertheless  recorded  in  the  registers  that  they  fre- 
quently interfered  in  matters  of  state,  of  war,  and  of  finance, 
either  owing  to  the  absence,  indisposition  or  minority  of  the 
Kings  of  France,  or  by  royal  permission,  or  when  business  brooked 
of  no  delay.  For  the  hearing  of  ordinary  cases  the  magistrates 
were  divided  into  several  separate  courts — first,  the  Grand 
Court,  which  was  the  kernel  of  the  whole  assembly ;  then  five 
Courts  of  Enquiry,  which  heard  appeals  made  from  the  decisions 
of  inferior  judges  to  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Parliament  ;  here 
"  judging  "  counsellors  listened  to  "  reporting  "  counsellors 
and  returned  the  final  verdicts  ;  and  two  CoLirts  of  Requests, 
each  composed  of  two  presidents  and  eight  counsellors,  which 
examined  the  petitions  laid  before  Parhament,  sent  back  some 
to  the  inferior  magistrates,  dealt  with  the  trivial  ones,  and 
reserved  for  the  Courts  of  Enquiry  those  that  were  of  sufficient 
importance.  In  addition  there  was  a  Criminal  Court,  called 
La  Tournelle,  which  had  jurisdiction  over  criminal  offences, 
and  consisted  of  two  presidents,  eight  counsellors  from  the 
Grand  Court,  and  two  from  each  of  the  Courts  of  Enquiry,  the 
whole  body  of  officials  being  changed  every  three  months  "  in- 
asmuch as  the  duty  of  constantly  passing  sentence  of  death  and 
condemning  men  impairs  the  natural  kindness  of  the  judges 
and  renders  them  to  a  certain  extent  cruel  and  inhuman." 
Lastly,  during  the  legal  vacations,  there  was  a  Vacation  Court 
consisting  of  a  judge  and  thirteen  counsellors,  which  tried 
criminal  causes  and  settled  minor  cases.  To  these  must  be  added 
the  Edict  Court,  founded  by  Henry  III  in  1576,  which  took 
cognizance  of  matters  of  dispute  between  Protestants  and 
Catholics,  and  which,  in  the  Parliament  of  Paris,  was  composed 
of  two  Presidents  and  sixteen  counsellors,  eight  being  Catholics 
and  eight  Huguenots.  All  the  Parliaments  of  the  country  were 
organized  on  a  similar  plan,  with  fewer  courts  containing  fewer 
magistrates.  Toulouse  had  only  two  courts,  a  Court  of  Enquiry 
and  a  Court  of  Requests.  The  Edict  Courts  sat  in  a  different 
place  from  the  Parliament — in  the  case  of  Toulouse  at  Castres. 

379 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

What  cases  fell  within  and  what  without  the  jurisdiction 
of  the  parliaments  ?  This  is  a  complex  question,  the  answers 
Jurisdiction  *^  which  are  somewhat  indefinite  and  arbitrary. 
oJ  the  In  the  first  place  the   parliaments    might    claim 

Parliaments,  to  take  cognizance  of  all  cases  connected  with 
important  personages — dukes  and  peers  of  the  realm,  princes, 
prelates,  chapters,  lords  of  the  manor  and  townships  and  all  who 
had  the  right  to  be  heard  before  it  in  virtue  of  a  special  privilege 
called  the  privilege  of  committimus  ;  "  also  of  all  cases  of  great 
weight  and  importance  connected  with  affairs  of  state," — 
matters  concerning  the  universities,  navigation,  and  in  general 
all  appeals  from  the  decisions  of  inferior  tribunals.  The  limita- 
tions were  vague  enough,  and  the  parliaments  did  very  much 
as  they  pleased  and  were  more  or  less  masters  of  the  situation. 
Hence  their  formidable  prestige  and  the  respectful  fear  they 
inspired.  Let  us  examine  the  magistrates  somewhat  more 
closely. 

The  chief  of  these  was  the  First  President,  a  personage, 
who  filled  as  important  a  position  in  his  own  province  as  did 
Constitution  ^he  Chancellor  in  the  kingdom ;  "  Monsieur  le 
of  the  premier,'''  as  he  was  called,  or  "  Messire  So-and- 

Parliaments.  so  "  when  he  was  a  knight,  that  is  to  say  of  noble 
birth.  At  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century,  however,  all  the 
First  Presidents  considered  themselves  knights  ex  officio.  The 
First  President  was  the  head  of  the  Parliament ;  he  presided 
over  the  Grand  Court,  and  also  had  the  right  to  preside  over  any 
of  the  others.  He  alone  enjoyed  the  privilege  of  being  allowed 
to  come  from  his  own  house  to  the  audience-chamber  in  his 
red  robes  ;  the  counsellors  and  other  presidents  had  to  dress 
at  the  Palace.  He  represented  the  King  in  the  loftiest  of  all  his 
functions ;  the  administration  of  justice.  Hence  he  took 
precedence  of  the  governor  or  lieutenant-general  of  a  province, 
and,  except  in  church,  even  of  archbishops  and  bishops.  Any 
great  personage,  save  a  prince  of  the  blood,  who  arrived  in  a 
parliamentary  town,  even  the  Constable  himself,  had  to  pay 
his  first  visit  to  him.  At  Toulouse,  on  the  death  of  a  First 
President,  all  the  church  bells  of  the  parishes  were  rung,  and  the 
Cardaillac,  the  great  bell  in  the  cathedral  of  Saint -fitienne,  was 
tolled,  an  honour  otherwise  reserved  for  an  Archbishop.  He 
880 


KINGDOM   OF   FRANCE   ABOUT   1600 

was  so  high  a  dignitary  that  if  the  governor  of  a  province  and 
his  lieutenant-general  chanced  to  be  absent,  he  took  their 
place  "  considering  himself  lieutenant-general  to  the  King 
within  the  jurisdiction  of  his  court."  He  also  interfered  in 
military  and  financial  matters.  Moreover,  during  the  civil 
wars,  he  rendered  great  services  in  the  south  by  maintaining 
or  re-establishing  public  order,  taking  military  measures  for 
defence,  and  safe-guarding  the  country  for  the  King.  He  was 
nominated  by  the  King,  who  could  transfer  him  wherever  he 
chose,  and  appoint  a  President  of  Paris  First  President  of 
Aix,  or  promote  a  First  President  of  Toulouse  to  the  equivalent 
post  in  Paris.  All  the  parliaments  of  France  were  supposed 
to  constitute  a  single  corporate  whole. 

After  the  First  President  came  the  Presidents  who  wore 
black  velvet  caps  (presidents  a  mortier)  and  presided  over  the 
various  minor  courts,  and  the  Counsellors,  who  were  also  august 
personages  and  surrounded  by  a  quasi-religious  prestige.  In 
the  exercise  of  his  office  the  person  of  a  magistrate  was  sacred 
and  inviolable.  His  function  was  so  lofty  that  it  ennobled 
both  him  and  his  descendants.  He  enjoyed  all  the  privileges 
of  the  nobility,  and  was  exempt  from  the  payment  of  the  taille 
and  other  dues,  and  from  having  soldiers  billeted  upon  him  in 
time  of  war.  He  could  not  be  dismissed  from  office,  his  salary 
could  not  be  attached,  and,  in  case  of  misdemeanour,  he  could 
be  judged  only  by  the  full  body  of  the  parliament  assembled 
with  all  its  courts.  He  alone  of  all  royal  officials  wore  the  red 
robe  "  scarlet  and  crimson  being  the  colours  and  vestments 
proper  to  the  King."  Among  the  counsellors  were  ecclesiastics 
called  clerical  counsellors — the  others  being  lay  counsellors — 
whose  number  was  fixed  by  the  ordinances  :  forty  in  Paris, 
ten  at  Toulouse,  eight  at  Rennes,  and  six  in  the  other  Parlia- 
ments. If  they  overstepped  these  numbers,  "  letters  of  laisa- 
tion  "  (meaning  laicisation)  were  obtained  from  the  King,  in 
order  to  revert  to  the  regulation  number.  To  these  clerics  were 
confided  more  especially  ecclesiastical,  religious,  and  sacred 
cases,  in  order  that  they  might  defend  the  rights  and  privileges 
of  the  Church,  and  instruct  the  lay  magistrates  upon  details  con- 
nected with  the  ecclesiastical  estate. 

Lastly  came   "  the   Parquet  "   (the   Bar) :  the  Procurator - 

38X 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

General,  the  Advocates -General  and  "  the  King's  men,"  all 
of  whom  at  royal  audiences  occupied  the  centre  of  the  floor  of  the 
Grand  Court,  kneeling  on  the  floor  (parquet),  whence  their 
name.  In  accordance  with  the  edict  of  May,  1586,  each  Parlia- 
ment had  one  Procurator-General,  two  Advocates -General,  and 
in  addition  sixteen  Vice-Procurators-General  in  Paris,  ten  at 
Toulouse  and  Bordeaux,  and  six  everywhere  else.  As  repre- 
sentatives of  the  King,  the  Parquet  defended  the  royal  interests 
if  they  were  at  stake  in  any  trial,  and  on  behalf  of  the  public 
weal  opposed  the  oppression  of  the  weak  by  the  strong,  pro- 
tecting the  former.  They  prosecuted  in  criminal  trials  and  gave 
opinions  in  private  cases.  They  were,  in  short,  a  species  of 
"neutral  puisne  judges,  the  hands  on  the  balance  that  inclines 
correctly  towards  the  side  to  which  the  weight  of  reason  carries 
the  judgment."  They  ranked  lower  than  the  counsellors,  and 
did  not  attend  the  general  meetings  of  the  chambers,  though  they 
enjoyed  the  privileges  of  the  court.  The  King  relied  upon 
them  to  inform  him  if  any  violation  of  the  edicts  took  place 
in  the  Parliaments. 

Similar  privileges  were  enjoyed  by  the  registrars — the  civil 
registrar  and  the  criminal  registrar,  who  farmed  their  registers, 
which  belonged  to  the  King's  estate,  wore  the  red  robe,  and 
attended  audiences  seated  and  with  their  heads  covered. 
Their  duty  consisted  in  transcribing  judgments  in  their  registers, 
and  forwarding  them  with  the  assistance  of  court-clerks  and 
**  bag-keepers,"  "well-drilled  people  and  honest  creatures,  steady, 
decorous  and  reliable." 

How  were  the  magistrates  appointed  ?  Roughly  speaking, 
in  order  to  be  a  counsellor  it  was  necessary  for  a  man  to  have 
been  an  advocate  for  four  years,  and  to  have  taken  his  degree  ; 
whilst  to  be  eligible  for  the  presidency  he  must  have  been  a 
counsellor  for  six  years.  An  enquiry  was  made  into  the  re- 
ligious convictions,  and  the  life  and  morals  of  the  candidates, 
no  man  being  eligible  who  was  either  "  deaf,  dumb,  blind, 
raving  mad,  lame,  humpbacked,  rheumatic,  gouty,  a  Jew, 
a  peasant,  deformed  or  clip-eared."  Magistrates'  seats  were 
sold  just  as  lawyer's  practices  are  sold  to-day.  On  condition 
of  paying  into  the  royal  exchequer  a  certain  annual  tax  called 
the  paulette  (after  Monsieur  Paulet,  who  invented  the  system) 
382 


KINGDOM   OF   FRANCE    ABOUT   1600 

the  King  authorized  the  judges  to  sell  their  offices  for  ready 
money  to  anybody  they  pleased.  Thus  all  judicial  grades 
in  France  became  hereditary  and  venal.  How  different  from 
the  days  when  the  King  himself  appointed  the  magistrates 
upon  the  recommendation  of  the  Parliaments,  when  these 
magistrates  after  taking  the  oath,  elected  their  Presidents  from 
among  the  counsellors,  and  the  counsellors  from  the  lawyers 
at  the  bar  !  The  sale  of  offices  was  gradually  introduced 
from  the  time  of  Francis  I  onwards,  and  the  King  had  no  power 
to  dismiss  judges  unless  they  failed  in  the  payment  of  their 
annual  tax.  The  result  was,  that  seats  were  handed  down  in 
families  from  father  to  son,  and  men  often  entered  the  Parlia- 
ment too  young  or  remained  when  they  were  too  old.  In 
order  to  maintain  discipline  and  tradition,  dignity  of  bearing 
and  professional  pride  in  assemblies  over-secure  in  their  tenure 
of  office,  there  existed  an  institution  resembling  the  Chapters  of 
monasteries — the  mercurial  Court.  A  session  which  was  held 
originally  every  Tuesday  {Mercredi)~~whence  the  title  mercurial 
— afterwards  once  a  months  and  under  Henry  IV  once  a  year, 
the  mercurial  treated  "  of  the  faults  of  officers  of  the  court, 
their  infringements  of  the  ordinances  and  customs  of  the  Palace," 
and  dealt  out  exhortations,  advice,  and  threats.  It  was  at  these 
mercurial  sessions  that  the  judges  were  requested  to  be  punctual 
in  their  attendance  ;  to  go  to  Mass  every  day  ;  to  be  upright, 
sober,  and  decent  in  their  behaviour  ;  secret  in  business ;  to 
converse  only  upon  lofty  and  never  upon  frivolous  subjects  ; 
to  avoid  any  familiarity  with  the  parties  in  suits,  and  to  refuse 
gifts  or  invitations  to  dinner  from  them  ;  to  set  an  example 
of  good  conduct,  that  is  to  say  not  to  hunt,  dance  or  play  cards, 
not  to  use  scent,  wear  wigs  or  dye  their  hair,  and  not  to  laugh. 
"  It  is  impossible,"  declared  La  Roche-Flavin,  "  to  find  a  perfect 
magistrate." 

Let  us  examine  them  as  they  march  past  in  order  of  rank, 
two  and  two,  the  Presidents  at  the  head,  preceded  by  the 
ushers  carrying  rods  and  the  registrars,  and  followed  by  the 
Parquet,  the  ushers,  the  advocates  and  the  procurators,  all 
majestic  in  their  red  robes.  Their  costume  was  the  old  royal 
costume  of  the  thirteenth  century — a  scarlet  robe,  a  long  red 
cloak,  lined  with  ermine,  or  some  white  fur  with  black  stripes 

383 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

or  spots,  "  the  said  cloak  thrown  open  over  the  shoulders  so 
as  to  show  the  said  fur  ;  "  and  on  their  heads  the  flat  round 
velvet  cap,  adorned  in  the  case  of  the  Presidents,  with  gold 
— the  mortiers  which  we  see  worn  by  the  Kings  on  thirteenth- 
century  seals.  They  took  their  seats  solemnly  in  the  Grand 
Court  on  high  benches — for  ordinary  sessions  they  would  wear 
only  black  and  sit  on  low  seats.  In  Paris  the  setting  of  this 
august  assembly  consisted  of  a  wainscoted  chamber  decorated 
with  red  and  gold  beneath  a  gilded  ceiling  with  pendentives, 
dating  from  the  time  of  Louis  XII,  the  walls  hung  with  tapestry 
and  the  windows  filled  with  stained  glass,  the  whole  sprinkled 
with  golden  fleurs-de-lis.  In  a  corner  to  the  left  would  stand 
the  King's  empty  seat,  consisting  of  great  cushions  of  blue 
velvet  spangled  with  gold  fleurs-de-lis  under  a  canopy  of  cloth 
of  gold  embroidered  with  porcupines  (this  too  dated  from 
the  reign  of  Louis  XII).  When  the  King  was  present  for  the 
registration  of  some  edict  at  what  was  called  a  lit  de  justice,  the 
magistrates  would  keep  silence,  because  in  the  presence  of  the 
sovereign  their  power,  as  his  delegates,  was  suspended.  To 
the  right  of  the  King's  seat  was  the  bench  belonging  to  the  lords 
temporal  of  the  realm  ;  on  the  left  that  assigned  to  the  lords 
spiritual ;  beneath  it,  the  presidential  bench  ;  and,  lastly,  the 
counsellors  sat  in  tiers  on  the  three  other  sides.  Ordinary 
meetings  were  held  in  the  morning  from  eight  to  ten  o'clock. 
The  Parliament  of  Paris  was  the  only  one  to  hold  a  session  in 
the  afternoon  (the  relevee  as  it  was  called)  from  two  to  five 
o'clock.  After  the  evidence  had  been  given  and  the  pleading 
finished,  the  judges  decided  the  case  by  a  majority,  each  one 
expressing  his  opinion  by  order  of  seniority.  He  who  agreed 
with  the  person  preceding  him  merely  said  "  idem  "  (ditto)  or 
"  raised  his  cap  "  whence  arose  the  expression  "  cap  option  " 
{opiner  du  bonnet).  The  Parliament  had  an  annual  vacation 
from  Holy  Cross  Day,  September  14,  to  the  day  after  the  Feast 
of  Saint  Martin,  November  12,  a  well-earned  repose  from 
arduous  labours  for  which  the  magistrates  were  but  poorly  paid. 
Their  fixed  salaries  were  low,  and  they  had  in  addition  the  fees 
fixed  by  the  presidents  in  each  case  for  the  reporting  counsellors, 
which  the  litigants  had  to  pay. 

Lastly,  as  the  indisputable  adjuncts  to  every  court  there 
384 


KINGDOM  OF  FRANCE  ABOUT  1600 

was  the  "innumerable  host"  of  lawyers,  "enough  to  make 
Lawyers.  several    regiments     or     even     a     small    army," 

divided  up  into  listeners — the  modern  "  juniors  " — pleaders 
and  consulting  counsels — our  "  leaders  " — "  the  triple  palisade  of 
the  garden  of  justice,"  "  leaves,  flowers,  and  fruit,"  "  bud,  sprig, 
and  perfect  branch."  They  were  recommended  to  speak 
"  briefly  and  to  the  point,"  to  be  "  pertinent  and  short."  This 
advice  was  ill-observed.  Next  came  the  terrible  crowd  of 
attorneys,  "  the  feet  of  the  Parliament,"  but  "  breeders  of 
law-suits,"  No  one,  from  King  to  peasant,  could  do  without 
them  ;  for  no  defence  was  legal  unless  it  were  "  heard  by  an 
attorney."  What  a  litigious  crew  they  were  !  But  for  them, 
"  there  would  have  been  extremely  few  law-suits."  They 
lived  by  litigation  and  abused  it.  Last  of  all  came  the  horde 
of  ushers,  criers,  and  others,  who  kept  order  during  the  hearing 
of  cases,  and  executed  sentences,  made  distraints,  notified 
judgments  and  presented  writs — a  vast  and  swarming  black 
multitude  ! 

Under  the  Parliaments  was  the  old-established  inferior 
jurisdiction  of  the  bailiffs  and  seneschals  in  the  provinces.  The 
Bailiffs  and  kingdom  was  divided  into  governments,  and  the 
Seneschals.  governments  into  districts,  called  bailiwicks  in 
the  north  and  seneschalships  in  the  south.  The  bailiff  or  sene- 
schal was  a  judge  representing  the  King.  The  origin  of  this 
office  is  lost  in  the  shades  of  time.  At  one  period  he  had 
been  the  King's  only  officer,  exercising  administrative,  judicial, 
and  military  functions.  But  in  course  of  time  all  these  attri- 
butes were  taken  from  him  by  degrees.  He  had  to  be  of  noble 
birth  and  was  therefore  a  "  short -robed  "  judge.  To  help 
him  in  the  administration  of  justice,  and  even  to  act  as  his 
substitute  if  necessary,  he  had  a  civil  lieutenant  called  "  a 
long-robed  judge,"  who  was  a  true  magistrate,  and  a  criminal 
lieutenant  for  dealing  with  crimes  and  misdemeanours.  Appeal 
could  be  made  from  their  verdicts  to  the  Parliaments.  Finally, 
in  order  to  relieve  these  courts  and  the  Parliaments,  Henry  II 
created,  in  1551,  an  intermediate  tribunal  called  the  Presidial 
Presidial  Court.     One  of  these  was  allotted  to  each  bailiff 

Courts.  or    seneschal    throughout     the     domain     and    to 

"the  best  towns,"  and  was  composed  of  six  judges  of  the 

2  b  385 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

same  rank  as  those  belonging  to  the  baihff's  tribunal,  and  a 
red-robed  President.  But  its  jurisdiction  was  wider,  a  Presidial 
Court  being  the  final  court  for  all  civil  cases  to  the  amount  of 
1000  pounds.  The  institution  of  a  court  which  curtailed  ex- 
penses and  long  journeys  was  a  boon  for  parties  to  a  suit. 

Under  the  bailiffs  or  seneschals,  there  were  scattered  through- 
out the  towns  and  boroughs  a  number  of  inferior  royal  judges 
Inferior  royal  who,  according  to  the  district,  were  called  pro- 
judges,  vosts,  viguiers,  lords  of  the  manor  or  viscounts. 
They  also  had  jurisdiction  over  civil  and  criminal  cases,  but 
only  those  of  minor  importance.  Their  chief  function,  how- 
ever, was  to  hear  appeals  from  the  decisions  of  the  manorial 
judges  ;  for,  below  them,  there  was  yet  another  stratum  of 
magistrates.  Every  individual  fief -holder,  who  had  a  right 
of  high,  medium,  and  petty  jurisdiction,  had  a  provost  who 
judged  civil  and  criminal  cases,  a  survival  from  early  feudal 
times  when  the  lord  of  the  manor  exercised  full  sovereign 
rights  in  his  own  demesne.  A  perpetual  struggle,  however, 
was  carried  on  between  these  petty  private  magistrates  of  the 
villages  and  the  royal  judges  in  the  neighbourhood,  who  in- 
vented all  manner  of  trifling  pretexts  to  destroy  the  judicial 
power  of  individuals,  and  make  the  exercise  of  their  rights 
impossible. 

And  thus  from  one  end  of  the  country  to  the  other,  France 
was  covered  with  a  network  of  judges.  In  addition  to  the 
Special  ones  already  enumerated,  there    were    all  kinds 

jurisdictions,  of  special  jurisdictions.  Military  matters,  deser- 
tions, crimes  committed  by  soldiers,  and  malversation  in  the 
administration  of  regimental  funds,  were  under  the  jurisdiction 
of  the  Marshalsea.  Naval  affairs,  navigation,  fishing  rights 
and  prizes  were  controlled  by  the  Admiralty.  All  offences 
connected  with  woods  and  waters  were  referred  to  the  Master 
of  the  Woods  and  Waters.  This  official  had  under  his  com- 
mand a  separate  Master  for  each  province  who  had  an  escort 
of  captains,  gamekeepers,  and  verderers.  In  Paris  these  three 
jurisdictions  were  called  the  Marble  Table.  Parisian  cases 
were  judged  by  the  Provost  of  Paris,  or  at  all  events  by  his 
lieutenant,  who  sat  in  the  Chatelet  (the  Provost  was  in  the 
position  of  bailiff  of  Paris).  All  crimes  that  could  be  committed 
386 


KINGDOM   OF   FRANCE   ABOUT   1600 

at  the  King's  Court  were  dealt  with  by  a  special  department 
called  the  Provostship  of  the  Royal  Residence  ;  the  Provost 
of  the  Royal  Residence,  like  a  bailiff,  having  under  him  two 
lieutenants,  and,  in  addition,  fifty  archers  who  acted  as  police 
within  the  radius  of  six  miles  of  the  Court  when  it  was  travelling 
about.  And  lastly,  over  and  above  all  this,  the  Parliaments 
sent  commissions  from  time  to  time  to  "  the  most  distant 
provinces  "  to  exercise  exceptional  judicial  powers  under  the 
name  of  "  Great  Days."  Even  now  we  have  made  no  mention 
of  the  municipal  police  courts.  Every  institution  that  enjoyed 
the  smallest  particle  of  authority  in  France  administered 
justice.  And,  on  the  other  hand,  all  the  courts,  on  the  pretext 
of  having  police  jurisdiction,  passed  administrative  regulations 
which  they  enforced  on  pain  of  penalty.  The  universal  confu- 
sion between  the  law  and  the  administration  resulted  in  a 
vast  unwieldy  machine  which  acted  automatically  throughout 
the  country,  the  King  being  powerless  to  control  it.  Combined 
with  the  claim  made  by  the  Parliaments  to  the  effect  that  no 
royal  edict  should  be  held  valid  that  had  not  been  registered 
by  themselves,  this  power  was  in  a  position  to  oppose  an  ex- 
asperating force  of  inertia  to  the  sovereign's  will.  The  King 
had  no  hold  over  it  even  through  legislation,  as  the  judg- 
ments of  the  whole  of  this  judicial  world  were  based  upon  Roman 
Law,  canon  law,  common  law,  usages  and  customs,  "  uses  and 
observances  "  and  equity,  and  took  but  small  account  of  edicts 
and  ordinances.  Thus,  in  spite  of  all  "  his  plenary  powers 
and  royal  authority,"  the  King  was  paralyzed  throughout  his 
kingdom  by  the  huge  growth  of  a  judicial  organization,  throwing 
out  minute  yet  almost  independent  roots,  that  adhered  to  the 
soil  and  became  passively  immovable.  He  was  no  less  tightly 
fettered  by  the  second  branch  of  the  administration,  which 
was  equally  minute  in  its  organization — the  financial  depart- 
ment. 

If  the  administration  of  justice  for  the  preservation  of  public 
order  has  always  been  regarded  as  the  first  necessity  of  the 
Finance  and  State,  the  raising  of  money  for  maintenance  has 
Taxation.  been  looked  upon  as  the   second.     Men  of  this 

period  made  ingenious  comparisons  between  the  State  and  the 
human  body,  likening  finance  to  the  nervous  system.     From 

387 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

Paris  to  the  smallest  villages,  a  whole  hierarchy  extended  whose 
business  it  was  to  collect  the  taxes. 

The  headquarters  of  the  system  in  the  immediate  environ- 
ment of  the  King  was  the  central  office  of  the  Exchequer  called 
L'Epargne.  VEpargne  (literally  Savings  Department)  contain- 
ing the  Receiver-General's  office  and  the  Treasury  of  FEpargne, 
and  administered  by  Treasurers  called  Tresoriers  de  VEpargne.  It 
was  to  these  headquarters  that  the  royal  receivers,  when  they 
had  paid  everything  that  had  to  be  settled  upon  the  spot, 
sent  any  surplus.  Wooden  coffers  secured  by  double  locks, 
the  keys  of  which  were  confided  to  the  safekeeping  of  various 
officials,  had  once  existed  in  the  Louvre  for  storing  this  money. 
But,  about  1600,  when  all  the  money  was  spent  before  it  could 
reach  them,  these  coffers  became  useless.  Sully,  however,  after 
eight  years  of  economical  government,  was  able  to  place  in  the 
treasury  tower  of  the  Bastille  13,000,000  pounds,  which  were 
secured  in  8000  sacks,  270  barrels  and  4  coffers. 

Every  year  under  the  direction  of  the  Superintendent  of 
Finance  the  Treasurers  of  FEpargne  drew  up  a  "  rough  estimate  " 
The  financial  ^^  ^^^  sums  required  for  the  following  year — the 
divisions  modern    "  draft    budget."        This     "  estimate " 

of  France.  revised  by  the  Council  of  Finance  and  signed  by 
the  King,  then  had  to  be  provided  for.  France  was  cut  up 
for  financial  purposes  into  a  certain  number  of  special  divisions, 
called  "generalities,"  from  the  old  expression  "Receiver- 
General  of  finances  "  which  became  shortened  to  "  General 
of  Finances."  There  were  in  1607,  twenty-one  generalities 
in  the  country,  of  which  sixteen  were  large.  Their  order  of 
importance,  based  on  the  magnitude  of  their  returns,  was  as 
follows — Rouen,  Poitiers,  Tours,  Limoges,  Paris,  Caen,  Orleans, 
Riom,  Bordeaux,  Lyons,  Moulins,  Bourges,  Amiens,  Chalons, 
Soissons,  and  Grenoble.  The  Council  of  Finance  divided  the 
taxes  to  be  raised  between  all  the  generalities  in  proportion  to 
the  resources  of  each  one,  as  shown  by  the  "  special  estimates  " 
sent  in  advance  to  Paris  by  the  financial  agents  attached  to 
the  generalities.  The  generalities  in  their  turn  were  divided 
into  smaller  sections  called  elections,  a  word  reminiscent  of  the 
time  when  the  tax-assessors  were  elected  by  the  people.  This, 
however,  was  prior  to  the  reign  of  Louis  XI,  after  which  the 
388 


KINGDOM   OF   FRANCE   ABOUT   1600 

office  was  in  the  gift  of  the  King,  or  was  even  hereditary.  The 
election  was  subdivided  into  parishes.  France,  under  Henry 
IV,  contained  149  elections  and  23,159  parishes  in  the  sixteen 
generalities  enumerated  above. 

At  the  head  of  each  generality  there  was  a  "  general  office  " 
consisting  of  about  ten  officials  called  "  treasurers  of  France  " 
and  "  generals  of  finance,"  and  numbering  altogether  through- 
out the  kingdom  197  treasurers.  It  was  their  business  to 
draw  up  every  year  and  send  to  Paris  the  "  rough  estimates  " 
or  budgets  for  their  respective  generalities.  They  were  helped 
by  a  receiver-general  of  finance,  who  centralized  the  surplus 
money  collected  from  the  minor  centres.  They  distributed  the 
burden  of  taxation  over  the  various  elections.  For  three 
months  of  the  year  each  of  them  in  turn  rode  round  to  inspect 
their  district,  examining  the  accounts  of  the  inferior  agents, 
looking  into  cases  of  malversation,  abuses,  and  mistakes.  They 
had  the  power  of  suspending  accountants  and  | temporarily 
filling  their  places.  Reports  of  their  "tours  of  inspection" 
were  forwarded  to  Paris. 

In  each  election  likewise  there  was  "  an  office  "  consisting 
of  eight  or  ten  agents  called  "  the  elect  "  (elus) :  "  Monsieur 
rSlu.'^  For  the  149  elections,  there  were  1340  representatives, 
who  distributed  the  burden  of  taxation  over  the  parishes,  and 
were  helped  by  a  local  receiver  of  finances,  whose  duty  it  was  to 
centralize  the  sums  raised  by  the  taxation  of  the  parishes.  We 
now  come  to  the  parishes,  which  formed  the  lowest  rung  in  the 
administrative  ladder.  The  representatives  distributed  the 
claims  during  the  fortnight  following  the  receipt  of  the  "com- 
mission." This  they  did  "  with  equity,  justice  and  impartiality," 
after  having  informed  themselves  of  the  resources  of  each  parish 
by  means  of  the  tours  which  they  too  made  every  year  with  the 
object  of  finding  out  the  means  of  the  inhabitants  through 
cross-questioning  the  chief  men  in  the  villages.  The  results 
of  these  investigations  were  recorded  in  the  written  reports. 
On  Sunday,  at  sermon  time  at  High  l^Iass,  the  priest  announced 
the  arrival  of  the  document  prescribing  the  amount  of  taxation 
to  be  raised  in  the  parish.  After  Mass  or  Vespers,  the  men 
assembled  in  the  church,  and,  if  the  parish  were  taxed  at  less 
than  300  crowns    of    grand    iaille,  appointed    two    of   them- 

389 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

selves,  and  if  at  more  than  this  amount,  four,  to  "  assess  " 
Assessors  and  the  taxes  and  collect  them.  These  were  the 
collectors.  collectors,    the     "  assessors "     of    the    parishes. 

The  assessment  made  by  these  officials  was  of  course  not  ac- 
quiesced in  by  the  taxpayer  without  objection  or  recrimina- 
tion, which  was  called  "repudiating  the  assessment  "  of  the 
taxes.  Recourse  was  then  had  to  the  "  elect  "  who  settled 
without  appeal  any  claim  not  above  one  crown.  The  docu- 
ment arranging  the  amount  to  be  demanded  from  the  contribu- 
tors, les  cotises  as  they  were  called,  was  drawn  up  by  the  col- 
lectors— if  they  could  not  write  a  clerk  helped  them — and  signed 
by  the  "  elect."  The  collectors  then  went  round  from  door 
to  door  demanding  the  money,  "  crossing  "  (striking  out)  the 
names  of  those  who  paid  up,  and  "  endorsing  "  them  (putting 
their  names  on  the  back),  thus  making  themselves  responsible 
for  the  amount  collected,  which  they  despatched  untouched 
to  the  local  receivers  of  the  election.  The  collector's  task  was 
a  hard  one,  troublesome  and  unpleasant,  and  involving  endless 
responsibility  and  worry.  But  everybody  had  to  take  his  turn 
at  it. 

Such  was  the  fiscal  organization  of  these  sixteen  generalities 
which  were  called  the  generalities  of  the  election  districts. 
Besides  them  there  were  districts  called  the  State  districts, 
which  consisted  of  five  generalities  :  Nantes,  Toulouse,  Mont- 
pellier,  Dijon  and  Aix.  Here  the  distribution  was  made  by 
States  elected  by  the  provinces — provincial  assemblies  which 
were  the  relics  of  local  liberty  and  independence,  and  were 
destined  to  disappear.  The  States  discussed  with  the  King 
the  amount  they  considered  it  possible  to  raise  for  him,  placing 
him  in  a  pitiable  position  of  dependence.  The  inferior  divisions 
in  these  places  were  called  by  various  names.  Brittany  had 
seventeen  local  receiver's  offices  called  hearth-tax  receiver's 
offices,  because  the  taxes  were  levied  on  fires.  At  Toulouse 
and  Montpellier  the  eleven  receiver's  offices  were  called  dioceses, 
and  were  confused  with  these.  In  Burgundy  and  Provence 
there  were  no  local  receiver's  offices,  but  only  a  general  receiver's 
office.  The  collecting  of  the  taxes  in  the  lower  strata  was 
organized  in  the  way  that  has  already  been  described. 

But  of  what  did  this  taxation  consist ;  what  were  the 
390 


KINGDOM   OF   FRANCE   ABOUT   1600 

contributions  that  the  subjects  of  Henry  IV  had  to  pay  ;  and 
what  were  the  resources  the  King  of  France  had  at  his  disposal  ? 
They  were  infinite,  complicated,  and  difficult  to  specify.  As 
a  matter  of  fact,  he  lived  by  all  manner  of  expedients,  and 
raised  money  from  every  possible  source. 

In  the  first  place  he  had  the  revenues  belonging  to  the 
royal  demesne,  the  King's  revenues  as  a  landowner  and  his 
Numerous  and  revenues  as  a  feudal  lord— farms,  corn,  wine,  poul- 
complicated       try,  quit-rents,  rents,  fifths  and  twenty-fifths,  land- 
taxes  paid  by     cheaps  or  fines  of  alienation,  waifs,  escheats,  fines, 
the  people.         confiscations,  seals,  tabellionage,  &c.,  from  which 
in  1600  he  derived  a  net  income  of  89,307  pounds.     In  addition 
to  this,  there  were  two  kinds  of  taxes  ;    those  raised  directly 
by  the  King's  agents,  which  we  should  call  direct  taxes  ;  those 
raised  by  means  of  tax-farmers  and  various  receiving  offices  ; 
and,    finally   what   was   known   as    "  extraordinary   moneys." 
The  first  two  kinds,  the  direct  taxes  and  those  which  were 
centralized  by  the  royal  officials,  consisted  essentially  of  the 
taille.     This  was  the  levy  the  organization  of  which  we  have 
The  Taille.         just  been  discussing.      The  taille  was  a  real  tax, 
that  is  to  say  a  property  tax  paid  on  all  land,  even  the  royal 
estates.     This  was  the  system  in  Provence  and  Languedoc. 
Or  it  might  be  personal,  that  is  to  say,  a  percentage  on  his 
possessions  paid  by  every  non-privileged  person.     Or  else  it 
might   be   mixed,   a   combination   of  the   two   systems.     The 
King's  Council  accordingly  settled  in  advance  the  sum  that 
the  taille  throughout  the  country  ought  to  bring  in.      This 
sum  was  distributed  over  the  various  generalities  by  means 
of  warrants  addressed  to  the  treasurers-general.     If  the  sum 
thus  obtained  were  insufficient,  or  the  returns  were  not  high 
enough,  the  King  would  decide  to  raise  a  supplement  called  an 
extraordinary  levy  or  "  grand  levy."     The  net  receipts  from  the 
taille  in  1600  was  10,843,544  pounds  of  which  893,545  pounds 
came  from  the  State  districts,  and  the  rest  from  the  election 
districts.     As  may  be  imagined,  the  returns  were  bad,  for  the 
taxpayers   were    grudging.     It   was   in   vain   that   the   parish 
collectors,    who    had    the    right    to  make    settlements    every 
three  months,  were   persecuted  by  the  local  receivers,  and  the 
local  receivers  by  the   general  receivers,   who  had  to  pay  in 

391 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

the  assignments  ;  the  collection  of  dues  was  by  no  means  always 
easy. 

After  the  taille,  which  formed  the  chief  revenue  of  the 
State,  the  farming  out  of  general  and  special  taxes  was  the 
second  source  of  supply.  These  were  revenues  which  were  sold 
to  the  highest  bidder  for  a  particular  number  of  years,  varying 
in  different  instances.  The  tax-farmer  paid  a  fixed  sum  every 
year  and  collected  the  taxes  at  his  own  risk  and  peril.  There 
were  some  thirty  taxes  that  were  farmed  out  in  this  way, 
such  as  the  gabelle  or  tax  on  the  sale  of  salt ;  the  aids :  taxes 
on  provisions  and  merchandize  sold  in  the  country  ;  taxes  on 
imports,  our  modern  customs  ;  tolls  ;  and  taxes  on  cards,  tarots, 
&c.  In  1600  the  farmed  taxes  brought  in  3,000,000  pounds  to 
the  royal  exchequer.  Like  the  receivers  the  tax-farmers  paid 
such  expenses  as  they  were  authorized  to  meet  out  of  their 
receipts  and  sent  the  surplus  from  their  farming  to  VEpargne 
every  three  months. 

There  were  other  sources  of  revenue,  such,  for  instance, 
as  the  taillon  or  lesser  taille.  When  the  distribution  of  the 
The  Budget  taille  had  been  made,  a  supplement  was  added 
of  1600.  "  arranged  on  the  same  basis  and  at  a  halfpenny 

in  the  pound,"  a  sort  of  additional  centime.  From  the  taillon 
590,238  pounds  were  raised  in  1600.  It  was  devoted  exclusively 
to  expenditure  in  connexion  with  the  maintenance  of  the  army, 
and  never  entered  V^pargne.  Then  there  were  the  "incidental 
dues  "  such  as  the  tax  called  the  paulette  on  magistrates, 
temporary  levies  on  various  concerns,  the  total  from  which 
added  another  1,644,046  pounds  ;  and  the  gifts  from  the  clergy, 
who  paid  no  taxes,  but  instead  made  voluntary  contributions 
to  the  Exchequer. 

Altogether  the  net  receipts  for  the  year  1600,  which  were 
forwarded  to  the  King  in  Paris,  amounted  to  the  total  sum  of 
16,208,823  pounds.  This  sum  was  insufficient  to  meet  the 
expenses,  and  it  was  necessary  to  have  recourse  to  other  means, 
and  to  raise  what  was  known  as  "  extraordinary  moneys  "  by 
the  creation  of  new  offices,  fiscal  inventions  and  ingenious  subtle- 
ties in  the  accounts,  which  produced  another  4,333,994  pounds, 
thus  making  the  grand  total  for  that  year  20,542,817  pounds. 

How  was  this  money  spent  ?  It  was  spent  in  two  ways. 
392 


KINGDOM   OF   FRANCE   ABOUT   1600 

In  the  first  place  all  State  expenses  in  the  provinces,  the  wages 
gtate  of  royal  officials,  the  upkeep  of  the  royal  estates, 

expenditure.  repairs,  legal  costs,  &c.,  were  paid  upon  the 
spot.  Unlike  the  modern  system  of  account-keeping,  particular 
expenses  were  calculated  on  the  basis  of  particular  receipts ; 
the  receiver  paid  the  money,  carefully  keeping  the  budget, 
bills,  receipts,  and  registers,  the  whole  signed  and  initialled. 
There  were  a  host  of  receivers :  receivers  of  incidental  moneys, 
receivers  of  the  salt  magazines,  receivers  of  the  farmed  taxes. 
They  all  forwarded  any  surplus  to  the  general  receiver's  office 
of  the  generality,  together  with  explanatory  memoranda,  sending 
the  exact  amount  of  cash  they  had  received.  After  a  certain 
period  of  grace,  if  they  failed  to  remit  their  "  balance,"  they 
were  fined  or  obliged  to  pay  interest  on  the  sums  they  kept 
at  the  rate  of  8|  per  cent.  The  Receiver-General,  in  his  turn, 
forwarded  every  three  months  to  VEpargne  any  surplus  he  had 
after  expenses  had  been  met.  He  sent  the  money  in  sealed 
bags,  carried  by  a  clerk,  with  a  memorandum  describing  the 
sums  despatched,  the  kinds  of  coin,  the  day  of  dispatch,  the 
number  of  waggons  filled,  the  whole  addressed  to  the  Superin- 
intendent  of  Finance  ;  and,  at  the  end  of  the  year  he  gave  the 
Court  of  the  Exchequer  a  duplicate  of  his  accounts. 

Thus  it  was  by  means  of  the  surplus  sent  from  the  provinces 
that  the  central  government  was  carried  on.  It  was  calculated 
that  the  Court  and  the  provinces  ought  to  divide  the  general 
receipts  of  the  State  equally  between  them.  The  government, 
of  course,  decided  beforehand  the  amount  to  be  kept  by  the 
provinces.  Each  generality  received  instructions  approved  by 
the  King  "  with  details  and  particulars  for  each  election  "  of 
all  the  various  sums  to  be  paid  Out  and  the  net  amount  that 
ought  to  be  handed  over  to  His  Majesty.  As  a  matter  of  fact  the 
net  returns  to  His  Majesty  varied  very  considerably,  according 
as  to  whether  the  receipts  from  the  taxes  were  good  or  bad. 

In  1600,  the  maintenance  of  the  Court  alone  cost  2,368,899 
Strictness  with  pounds,  for  it  was  "  necessary  to  make  conspicuous 
which  the  and  shining,  as  is  only  seemly,  the  splendour  and 

pubhc  Accounts  majesty  of  the  household  of  the  King  and  of  his 
were  kept.  suite."  The  money  was  administered  by  means 
of    a    strict    system    of    accounts,    separate    receivers    and 

893 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

treasurers  being  appointed  to  each  department  of  the  house- 
hold. There  was  a  spencer  to  deal  with  expenditure  on  food, 
a  "  steward  "  of  the  Royal  wardrobe,  one  receiver  for  the  stables 
and  another  for  the  household  officials.  Everything  was  paid 
in  accordance  with  statements,  receipts,  registers  and  lists. 
The  budget  of  the  expenditure  of  the  central  government  in- 
eluded,  in  addition  to  this,  some  twenty  items  such  as  1,812  787 
pounds  for  pensions  ;  243,322  pounds  for  the  royal  guards  ; 
1,038,000  pounds  a  year  for  the  Swiss  companies  ;  201,666 
pounds  for  embassy  expenses  ;  478,727  pounds  for  fortifications  ; 
558,352  pounds  for  building  ;  7,067,685  pounds  in  interest  on 
Crown  debts,  an  exceedingly  heavy  not  to  say  crushing  charge  ; 
for  ordinary  and  extraordinary  war  expenses — our  modern  army 
budget — 4,946,863  pounds.  There  were  war  treasurers  in 
ordinary  who  allotted  the  money  from  this  budget  to  the 
various  paymasters  of  the  companies.  The  treasurer  of  Vt^pargne 
paid  nothing  except  on  receipt  of  statements,  bills,  and  orders 
signed  by  the  King,  sealed  with  the  Great  Seal  and  supervised 
by  a  financial  steward,  all  of  which  transactions  were  afterwards 
revised  by  the  Court  of  the  Exchequer. 

For  there  was  an  extremely  strict  Court  of  the  Exchequer 
before  which  sheaves  of  documents  with  technical  names  had  to 
Exchequer  be  laid — notes  of  hand  called  debentur,  certifi- 
Court.  cates  called  servivi,  &c.     This   Court,   which  was 

the  second  great  administrative  body  in  the  kingdom,  consisted 
of  several  offices  ;  the  head  office,  with  ten  presidents  and  sixty- 
two  chief  accountants  ;  two  offices  which  balanced  the  accounts  ; 
a  corrector's  office  which  drew  up  reports  of  the  closed  accounts 
for  the  Court  of  the  Exchequer  ;  and  a  fourth  office,  called  the 
auditor's  office,  which  drew  up  reports  on  the  accounts  waiting 
to  be  closed — not  to  mention  the  Procurator-General  and  the 
Advocate-General.  All  these  officials  were  engaged  in  sifting 
the  public  accounts,  lodging  protests,  raising  opposition,  and 
coming  down  for  the  slightest  deficit  upon  the  receivers  and 
treasurers,  who  trembled  before  them.  This  Court  had  to 
read  and  ratify  the  edicts,  the  ordinances  concerning  finance, 
exemptions,  privileges,  and  abatements,  and  passed  measures 
discharging  the  responsible  officials  of  their  liabilities,  failing 
which  their  private  property  could  be  attached.  In  practice 
894 


KINGDOM   OF   FRANCE   ABOUT   1600 

its  jurisdiction  was  very  far  from  being  nominal ;  it  was 
effective  and  rigorous,  and  the  financia]  agents  were  constantly 
having  trouble  with  it,  whilst  above  all  the  King  himself  was 
not  free  to  do  as  he  pleased. 

Besides  the  Court  of  the  Exchequer,  there  was  the  Court 
of  Aids,  which  had  two  presidents  and  two  chambers,  each 
Court  of  Aids  containing  twenty-six  counsellors,  a  procurator- 
andMint.  general  and  two  advocates -general.     It   decided 

the  cases  arising  from  the  collection  of  the  taxes,  the  refusals 
to  pay,  the  appeals  against  fines,  and  disputed  contracts  with 
tax-farmers.  And,  lastly,  the  Court  of  the  Mint,  with  four 
presidents,  and  twenty  masters  or  general  counsellors,  which 
took  cognizance  of  all  disputes  arising  in  connexion  with  the 
coinage  of  money,  and,  as  an  extension  of  this  duty,  all  cases 
related  to  the  trade  and  industry  in  precious  metals. 

And  thus  at  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century  the  legal  and 
financial  administration  of  the   country  had  been  organized 
with  great  precision  and  even  minuteness,  through  the  channel 
of  traditional  institutions  slowly  built  up  through  the  ages, 
and  preserved,  extended,  and  made  more  complex  with  time 
(the  system  of  public  accounts  was  stricter  than  is  generally 
believed  even  in  the  thirteenth  century),   but   preserved  in- 
tact once  the  ferment  of  the  civil  wars  was  over  and  the  inevit- 
able disorder  arising  from  temporarily  disorganized  machinery. 
The  administration  properly  so  called,  that  is  to  say  the  direct 
administrative   work  of   the   central  power   in  the   provinces 
was  much  more  embryonic,   owing  to  the  survival  of  strong 
municipal  rights  and  liberties  which  were  scrupulously  respected. 
For  the   purposes    of   administration   France   was   divided 
into  fourteen  governments,  at  the  head  of  which  great  nobles 
Administration,  were  placed  as  governors.     They  had  lieutenants - 
Governors.         general,    former    counsellors     of     the    sovereign 
courts,    to   help   them    and   take    their   places   when,    as   fre- 
quently occurred,  they  were  absent  from  their  province.     The 
governor's    only   duties   were   to  maintain  the   public    peace 
and,  in  the  words  of  an  ordinance  of  1579,  "  to  keep  his  district 
in  safety,  guard  it  against  ravages,  visit  the  fortresses,"  and 
to  inform  the  King  if  any  event  of  importance  occurred.     The 
governor  was  in  fact  merely  a  military  chief  who  kept  watch 

395 


CENTURY   OF   THE   RENAISSANCE 

and  ward  over  his  province.  He  was  not  allowed  to  interfere 
in  the  administration  of  justice,  except  for  the  purpose  of  sup- 
porting judges  in  the  execution  of  sentences.  He  was  respon- 
sible for  the  garrisons  and  their  maintenance,  for  the  fortifica- 
tion of  strongholds  and  their  supply  of  ammunition.  Under 
his  direct  orders  local  governors  or  captains  fulfilled  similar 
duties  in  many  of  the  towns,  and  in  the  forts  and  citadels  of  the 
kingdom,  more  particularly  on  the  frontier.  In  short  the 
governor  was  more  of  a  military  official  than  anything  else. 
He  was  frequently  a  duke,  peer,  or  grand  baron  of  the  realm. 
He  represented  the  King,  and  his  authority,  which  was  the  highest 
in  the  province,  surrounded  him  with  the  halo  of  the  royal 
power  of  which  he  was  the  delegate,  whilst  at  the  same  time 
he  held  in  his  hands  the  material  force  necessary  to  support 
this  prestige. 

At  one  time,  the  active  agent  under  the  governor  was 
the  bailiff  or  seneschal.  His  duty  also  was  to  safeguard  the 
Governor's  public  peace,  and  he  too  was  a  kind  of  military 
Executive.  official,  though  more  of  a  "  national  guard." 
"  By  riding  round  on  tours  of  inspection  he  saw  to  it  that  justice 
was  rightly  and  duly  administered."  He  had,  moreover,  been 
a  captain  or  lieutenant  of  men-at-arms,  and  was  a  person  of 
noble  birth  appointed  by  the  King  from  a  list  of  candidates 
sent  by  the  governor.  His  "long-robed"  Heutenants  relieved 
him  of  the  judicial  part  of  his  functions,  so  that  the  only  duty 
remaining  to  him  was  to  keep  watch  and  ward  and,  when  the 
country  was  in  danger,  to  convoke  the  ban  and  rear-ban. 

For  the  practical  maintenance  of  peace  in  the  "country-side, 
villages  and  unfortified  towns"  the  "tranquillity  and  safety 
Police.  of    honest    folks,"    there    was    the    Marshalsea, 

composed  of  the  provosts  of  the  Marshals  of  France,  general 
and  local,  supported  by  lieutenants  and  archers.  They  com- 
posed the  public  body  charged  with  the  duty  of  arresting 
"  robbers,  murderers,  loiterers  on  the  high  roads,  idlers,  vaga- 
bonds, and  other  persons  without  means  of  subsistence  or 
domicile  "  and  conveying  them  to  the  prisons  of  the  bailiwick  or 
of  the  presidial  coiu-t — the  duty  of  the  modern  corps  of  gendarmes 
(constabulary).  In  Paris  the  pohce  consisted  of  240  archers — 
of  whom  thirty-two  were  mounted — belonging  to  the  Knight 
396 


KINGDOM   OF   FRANCE   ABOUT   1600 

of  the  Watch,  and  commanded  by  four  Heutenants  with  the 
help  of  commissaries — the  former  examining  commissaries  of 
the  Chatelet,  who  eventually  developed  into  police  superinten- 
dents. By  an  edict  of  June,  1586,  there  were  about  forty  com- 
missaries in  Paris,  four  in  parliamentary  towns,  two  in  places 
which  were  the  seat  of  a  presidial  court,  and  one  for  all  districts 
under  the  jurisdiction  of  a  bailiff  or  a  provost. 

Thus  the  administration  exercised  the  functions  of  a  police 
force  more  than  anything  else.     This  was  due  to  the  fact  that 
Municipalities,   the  towns,  boroughs,  and   parishes   still  retained 
a   great   deal  of   local  authority.      The  municipalities  varied 
considerably  in    their    organization    owing    to    differences    of 
origin,    tradition,  and   custom.      Paris,    for    instance,    had    a 
Provost  of  the  Merchants  instead  of  a  Mayor,  four  aldermen, 
who  held  office  for   two   years,    and   twenty-six    counsellors  ; 
whilst  each  of  the  sixteen  quarters  of  the  city  had  at  its  head 
a  quartenier  with  cinquanteniers  and  dizeniers  under  them,  and 
a  complete  municipal  guard.     At  Bordeaux  there  was  a  Mayor 
and  six  jurats ;  at  Perigueux  a  Mayor  and  six  consuls  ;  at  Poitiers 
a  Mayor,  twenty-five  aldermen  and  a  council  of  seventy-five 
citizens;  in  one  place  there  were  maieurs,*  in  a  second,  such 
as  Toulouse,  capitouls,  and  in  others  jures,  consuls,  and  town 
syndics.     Elected  in  various  ways  by  the  inhabitants,  frequently 
for  one  year  only,  these  municipal  officers  looked  after  the 
town  police,  the  cleaning  of  the  streets,  and  the  repair  of  the 
ramparts.     They  saw  to  the  closing  of  the  gates  in  the  evening 
and  the  ringing  of  the  curfew,  ascertained  that  the  town  was 
well  stocked  with   provisions,   that   artisans   performed  their 
work  conscientiously,  and  that  the  weights  and  measures  were 
correct.     The  funds  for  carrying  on  the  administration  were 
obtained  from  the  municipal  taxes,  and  when  it  was  necessary 
to  undertake  public  works  the  officials  asked  the  Council  of  State 
to  pass  a  decree  authorizing  them  to  raise  a  fresh  levy.     In 
many  places  the  municipal  authorities  administered  justice — 
forming  a  tribunal  of  police  or  of  justices  of  the  peace.     Appeal 
could  be  made  from  their  verdicts  to  the  inferior  royal  judges. 
An  interesting  spectacle  is  afforded  by  these  large  and  small 
towns,  boroughs,  and  villages,  discussing  and  arranging  their 

*  A  name  given  to  mayors  in  the  Middle  Ages.    (Tr.) 

397 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

own  affairs,  sedately  and  peacefully,  like  prudent  people  who 
had  attained  to  years  of  discretion.  The  life  lived  in  them 
was  varied  and  picturesque.  But  occasionally,  even  at  this 
period,  when  complications  arose,  or  it  was  temporarily  neces- 
sary to  secure  strict  unity  of  action,  the  government  sent 
Masters  of  Requests  to  the  frontier  provinces  with  "extra- 
ordinary commissions  "  to  take  up  the  provisional  administra- 
tion "  of  justice,  police,  and  finance."  These  were  the  Inten- 
dants  (stewards),  the  future  instruments  of  the  levelling  process, 
of  a  domineering  and  withering  system  of  centralization. 

The  army  and  the  navy  remain  to  be  discussed.  No  standing 
army  or  navy  worth  mentioning  existed.  The  method  pre- 
The  Army  and  vailing  at  this  time  was  to  raise  regiments  only 
the  Navy.  when  troops    were    required   for  war.    Amongst 

the  class  of  people  who  had  no  homes  and  few  scruples,  were 
to  be  found  those  who  were  ready  to  enlist  for  money  ;  and 
of  these  there  was  always  a  plentiful  supply.  But  in  view  of  the 
risk  of  being  kidnapped,  to  which  the  Kings  of  the  second  half  of 
the  sixteenth  century  had  been  exposed,  the  Court  became 
inclined  to  keep  a  permanent  armed  force  always  on  foot.  In 
addition  to  this,  garrisons  were  required  for  the  fortresses. 
But  above  all  the  staff  of  great  officers  was  permanent :  first, 
the  Constable,  who  was  a  grand  Crown  official,  a  sort  of  General- 
issimo, who  had  supreme  command  of  all  the  forces,  even 
taking  precedence  of  princes  of  the  blood.  Under  him  were 
the  Marshals  of  France  who  commanded  the  army  under  certain 
contingencies.  Francis  I  insisted  upon  having  four,  but  the 
Permanent  number  varied  according  to  circumstances.  Next 
troops.  in  rank  came  the   Colonel-General  of    Infantry, 

who  was  a  sort  of  "  director  of  the  forces."  The  regiments  were 
commanded  by  Field  Masters  or  Marshals.  Of  the  troops,  the 
first  permanent  unit  was  the  King's  guard,  a  superb  body  of 
men  with  brilliant  uniforms — ^first  the  four  mounted  companies 
of  the  Lifeguards,  with  860  men  to  a  company,  each  of  which 
was  divided  into  six  brigades,  making  a  total  of  1440  men  and 
eighty-three  officers,  all  dressed  in  the  royal  colours,  the  colours 
of  the  House  of  Bourbon,  blue,  white,  and  red.  This  was  a 
very  old  established  force  dating  from  the  time  of  Charles  VII, 
Louis  XI,  and  Francis  I.  Next  came  the  company  of  light - 
398 


KINGDOM   OF   FRANCE   ABOUT    1600 

horse  belonging  to  the  royal  guard,  a  body  of  200  men  created 
by  Henry  IV  ;  and  above  all  the  regiment  of  the  French  Guards 
which  was  formed  about  1564  after  the  attempt  to  kidnap 
the  King  at  Montceaux,  and  consisted  of  twenty  companies, 
the  full  complement  of  which  was  500  men  to  each  company. 
In  1600,  however,  they  had  only  eighty,  a  number  raised  to 
300  for  the  war  with  Savoy.  This  was  the  oldest  and  most 
glorious  of  the  infantry  regiments.  And  last  of  all  the  Swiss. 
The  regiment  of  Swiss  Guards  was  only  created  in  1616  by 
Louis  XIII.  Under  Henry  IV,  the  King  had  only  one 
company  of  Swiss,  called  the  Hundred  Swiss,  in  his  bodyguard. 
This  company  dated  from  the  time  of  Louis  XII ;  its  members 
wore  a  variegated  slashed  uniform  and  were  employed  in  the 
King's  special  service. 

First  among  the  other  permanent  troops  were  the  Swiss 
contingents.  Ever  since  the  time  of  Louis  XI  the  Kings  of 
Swiss  Con-  France  had  hired  mercenaries  in  the  cantons 
tingent.  of  Switzerland.      Some  of  these  companies  were 

recognized  and  acknowledged  by  the  Helvetian  authorities, 
others  were  recruited  by  captains.  According  to  the  treaties 
not  more  than  16,000  or  less  than  6000  could  be  procured  in 
this  way.  Their  Colonel-General  was  Monsieur  de  Harlay  de 
Sancy,  and  they  were  divided  into  companies  of  200  men,  all 
admirable  in  their  discipline  and  devotion  to  the  Crown. 
Beyond  these,  the  only  permanent  troops  were  four  regiments 
of  infantry  from  Picardy,  Piedmont,  Champagne,  and  Na- 
varre ;  a  fifth,  belonging  to  Normandy,  dated  only  from 
1616  or  1617.  The  word  regiment  was  used  by  Monluc  and 
meant  a  group  of  companies  or  ensigns  which,  in  the  course 
of  time,  thus  became  stable.  After  the  Peace  of  Vervins 
in  1598,  Henry  IV  cither  disbanded  or  reformed  all  the 
regiments  he  had  at  that  moment,  with  the  exception  of 
the  four  just  mentioned,  which  were  made  up  of  varying 
numbers  of  companies,  ten  or  twelve,  containing  a  nominal 
contingent  of  300  men.  As  a  matter  of  fact  they  had  not  nearly 
so  many.  The  men  were  rough  soldiers,  vigorous  and  hardy  ; 
but  they  were  scamps  and  marauders,  insolent  and  insub- 
ordinate. Divided,  according  to  the  weapon  they  carried, 
into  pikemen  and  musketeers,  they  would  march  along,  the 

399 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

latter  surrounding  the  former,  preceded  by  their  fifes  and 
drums,  escorted  by  their  officers,  captains,  Heutenants,  and 
ensigns,  their  petty  officers,  sergeants,  corporals,  and  lance- 
pesades.  They  were  drilled,  though  they  wore  no  uniform, 
and  were  billeted  on  the  inhabitants  of  the  place  they  were 
in.  When  the  King  wished  to  raise  fresh  troops  he  gave  signed 
commissions  to  captains,  who  recruited  men  to  the  sound  of  the 
drum,  offering  them  earnest-money  and  payment  for  their 
services.  The  cavalry  consisted  in  the  first  place  of  companies 
of  light-horse,  the  members  of  which  wore  helmets  and  breast- 
plates, each  company  containing  about  fifty  "  masters."  They 
were  quartered  in  the  small  towns  and  frequently  changed 
their  garrisons.  This  body  was  the  light  cavalry.  Then  came 
the  heavy  cavalry,  consisting  of  companies  called  ordnance 
companies  and  companies  of  men-at-arms,  each  of  100  lancers, 
raised  in  time  of  war  by  princes,  governors,  and  other  authori- 
ties. The  members  of  this  body  were  men  of  gentle  birth, 
well  mounted  and  equipped.  But  there  was  a  tendency  to 
replace  them  by  light  horsemen.  The  cavalry  regiments  were 
not  created  until  the  reign  of  Louis  XIII.  The  artillery  was  even 
simpler.  The  Grand  Master  of  the  Artillery,  Monsieur  de 
Rosny,  laid  in  a  store  of  cannon  and  casks  of  ammunition  in 
the  Arsenal  in  Paris.  In  time  of  war,  people  who  owned  carts 
were  paid  so  much  a  day  to  transport  all  this  ordnance.  No 
special  artillery  corps  existed  at  this  period. 

And  if  the  country  were  suddenly  invaded,  or  some  grave 
and  imminent  danger  threatened,  the  King  had  recourse  to  the 
Ban  and  old  feudal   custom    of    calling  out  the  ban  and 

rear-ban.  rear-ban,  a  sort  of  "  general  levy."     The  bailiffs 

and  seneschals  convoked  all  the  enfieffed  nobility,  who  had  to 
serve  as  cavalrymen  for  three  months  without  payment,  and 
the  people  of  the  parishes  were  summoned  to  serve  as  infantry 
— an  inefficacious  method  which  was  practically  never  used. 

As  for  the  navy,  it  was  a  negligible  quantity.  There  was 
certainly  an  Admiral,  a  personage  who  had  supreme  control 
The  Navy  ^^    everything    connected   with  the  sea  and  the 

practically  coast.     The  Admiral,   however,  who  was  a  great 

non-existent.  Crown  official,  hke  Coligny,  for  instance,  was 
not  a  sailor.  He  was  a  sort  of  judicial  administrator  who  had 
400 


KINGDOM   OF   FRANCE   ABOUT   1600 

jurisdiction  in  all  the  maritime  towns  and  dealt  with  all  crimes 
committed  at  sea  "  and  on  the  sea-shore,"  all  matters  connected 
with  navigation,  fishing,  freightage,  sales  and  breaking-up  of 
ships,  and  insurance  policies.  He  was  helped  by  officers  called 
Admiralty  officers,  lieutenants -general  and  local  lieutenants, 
counsellors  and  procurators.  He  appointed  vice-admirals, 
superintendents,  coast  captains  and  coastguards,  and  naval 
captains  and  controllers.  As  for  the  ships  they  were  a  sorry 
afTair.  During  the  disastrous  years  of  anarchy,  everything 
had  been  allowed  to  go  to  ruin.  There  were  merely  a  few 
galleys  on  which  criminals  were  sent  to  row  under  the  com- 
mand of  a  general  of  the  galleys.  When  in  1600,  Henry  IV 
wanted  a  small  escort  for  the  ship  that  bore  Marie  de'  Medici 
from  Florence,  he  was  obliged  to  borrow  vessels  from  the 
Knights  of  Malta  and  from  the  Pope. 

Such,  briefly,  were  the  institutions  by  means  of  which 
France  was  governed  at  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  and  the 
beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century.  The  administration 
certainly  resembled  the  bushy  tree  described  by  Charles  de 
Figon — and  even  now  we  have  made  no  mention  of  the  conflict 
of  functions,  the  tangle  of  authorities  and  the  disputes  and 
encroachments  that  occurred.  The  large  principal  branches 
were  fairly  well  defined  ;  whilst  throughout  the  whole  orga- 
nism there  ran  a  vital  sap,  which  endowed  it  with  an 
originality  differentiating  the  organization  of  this  period  from 
the  automatic  mechanism  of  the  uniform  institutions  of  a 
later  date.  It  is  true  that  there  were  many  inconveniences 
connected  with  the  old  methods,  creaking  wheels,  parts  that 
worked  badly  or  stopped  working  altogether,  duplicate  offices, 
waste,  injustice,  and  violence.  But  the  whole  structm'e  possessed 
colour  and  picturesqueness,  it  was  extremely  solid  and  above 
all  it  was  endowed  with  vitality — a  great  merit.  What  was 
the  life  of  the  French  people  within  this  frame  ? 

Socially,  the  French  people  were  divided  into  three  great 
The  three  Estates.      Every  individual    had   either  entered 

Estates  or  into  the  ecclesiastical  Estate,  or   he  belonged  to 

Orders.  the  Estate  of   the  nobility  or  that  of  the  com- 

mons, called  the  Third  Estate.     The  political  assembly  of  the 

2  c  401 


CENTURY   OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

representatives  of  these  three  estates  was  called  the  States- 
General.  A  man  belonged  and  necessarily  belonged  to  one 
or  other  of  these  three  Estates.  The  first  in  order  of  precedence 
was  the  ecclesiastical  Estate. 

In  1600  the  clergy  constituted  a  vast  body  forming,  so  to 
speak,  a  State  within  a  State.  It  was  a  skilfully  organized 
The  Clergy.  hierarchy.  Its  enormous  revenues  made  it 
independent.  It  had  its  own  judges,  with  special  tribunals 
rising  from  the  lowest  to  the  highest  grades — diocesan  courts, 
metropolitan  courts,  appeals  to  Rome,  &c.,  which  the  State  was 
forced  to  recognize.  These  tribunals  took  cognizance  of  every 
sort  of  case,  provided  clerics  were  involved.  It  had  its  own 
legislation,  the  canon  law,  which  it  alone  could  modify.  It 
paid  no  taxes  and  was  liable  to  none  of  the  charges,  such  as 
having  soldiers  billeted  upon  its  members,  to  which  ordinary 
subjects  were  exposed.  It  formed  a  complete  close  society, 
which  was  respectful  to  the  King,  but  outside  his  sphere  of 
power,  although,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  he  endeavoured  to  get 
some  sort  of  control  over  it  by  appointing  the  Bishops  and 
Abbots,  an  extraordinary  right  conferred  upon  him  by  the 
Concordat.  For  a  long  time  the  Church  even  tried  to  go  beyond 
the  bounds  of  its  purely  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction,  and,  as  late 
as  the  reign  of  Henry  IV,  its  judges  claimed  the  right,  to  the 
exclusion  of  the  lay  magistrates,  of  dealing  with  all  questions 
connected  with  separations,  annulments  of  marriages,  and 
divorce,  on  the  pretext  that  matters  concerning  the  sacraments 
were  at  issue.  But  the  officers  of  the  Crown  resisted  this 
demand,  and  entered  upon  a  struggle  to  restrict  the  privileges 
of  the  Church  and  force  the  clerics  to  enter  as  ordinary  subjects 
within  the  sphere  of  the  common  law.  It  was  destined  to  be 
a  long  conflict  lasting  for  centuries. 

The  staf?  of  the  Church  at  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth 
century  was  extremely  numerous.  There  were  so  many 
ecclesiastics  in  France  that  there  were  not  nearly  enough  posts 
for  all  of  them,  although  the  number  of  situations  available 
was  very  considerable.  In  the  136  archiepiscopal  or  episcopal 
dioceses  into  which  the  kingdom  was  divided — large  ones 
like  Rouen,  including  several  modern  departments,  and  tiny 
ones  like  Saint-Papoul  containing  barely  one  canton — there 
402 


KINGDOM   OF  FRANCE   ABOUT   1600 

were  about  40,000  titular  priests.  These  were  helped  in  theii 
duties  by  an  equal  number  of  clerics  who  were  called  vicars, 
chaplains,  or  confessors,  or  lived  as  best  they  could,  making 
a  total  of  80,000.  The  cathedral  chapters  were  composed 
on  an  average  of  sixty  canons.  Together  with  those  forming 
college  chapters  the  number  of  canons  amounted  to  19,000, 
whilst  the  number  of  commendatory,  that  is  to  say,  secular, 
abbots  and  priors,  was  5000.  They  were  all  provided  with 
prebends.  The  poorest  of  them  all  were  the  country  clergy. 
A  priest  could  be  the  titular  priest  of  several  cures,  that  is  to 
say,  he  could  enjoy  the  revenues  of  several  posts  at  once.  In 
the  places  he  did  not  visit  his  duties  were  performed  by  a  vicar, 
to  whom  he  paid  a  small  fixed  salary,  so  small  indeed,  that 
in  order  to  eke  out  a  livelihood  the  latter  was  obliged  to  in- 
crease his  incidental  charges  and  demand  payment  for  the 
administration  of  the  sacraments,  even  the  sacrament  of  peni- 
tence. But  in  addition  to  these,  there  was  a  whole  host  of 
unattached  priests,  who,  not  finding  posts,  were  obliged  to 
work  for  their  living.  They  prepared  wax,  sowed  corn,  did 
carpentry  and  carried  out  commissions.  They  were  given 
the  courtesy  title  of  "  messires  "  but  were  as  badly  treated 
as  if  they  had  been  common  workmen.  The  religious  services 
were  very  long  everywhere.  In  Normandy,  in  the  little  country 
churches,  the  Sunday  services  would  be  as  follows  :  Matins, 
the  first  High  Mass  called  the  Mass  of  Our  Lady,  frequently 
with  an  obit — the  foundations  of  obits  were  innumerable  ; 
this  was  followed  by  the  parochial  High  Mass — the  High  Mass 
with  a  sermon — when  the  officiating  priest  gave  out  all  the 
notices  on  administrative  and  other  matters.  In  the  afternoon 
came  Vespers  and  often  a  procession.  Benediction  did  not 
exist  at  this  time.  The  task  of  preaching,  even  in  country 
districts,  was  left  to  the  religious  orders. 

The  number  of  monks  and  nuns  was  equally  great.  Under 
Henry  IV  people  complained  bitterly  that  there  were  too  many 
Religious  of  them,  too  many  orders  and  convents,  and  above 

Orders.  all,  too  many    "  mendicants."     There    were  the 

"  old  mendicants  "  the  Carmelites,  the  Augustinians,  the  Jacobins, 
and  the  Greyfriars,  who  numbered  13,500.  They  went  about 
preaching  in  country  places  and  got  their  living  by  begging  from 

403 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

door  to  door  ;  they  were  said  to  collect  from  1,200,000  to 
1,300,000  pounds  a  year.  These  friars  made  some  return  for 
the  money  they  collected,  inasmuch  as  they  preached  the  Gospel 
in  rural  districts.  But  those  who  went  by  the  title  of  the 
"  reformed  Franciscans  "  the  Recollets,  the  Capuchins  and  the 
Picpus,*  numbering  some  21,000,  preached  much  less  and 
begged  much  more — collecting,  it  was  estimated,  almost  8,000,000 
pounds  a  year.  They  were  perpetually  building  and  seemed 
to  irritate  the  people  ;  for,  according  to  a  contemporary  writer, 
in  order  to  beg  they  were  continually  visiting  country  houses 
one  after  the  other,  and  the  inmates  were  obliged  to  receive 
them  out  of  charity  and  give  them  money.  "  No  one  could  be 
more  importunate  ;  they  fed  extremely  well  wherever  they  went 
and  only  visited  the  nobility."  They  were  regarded  as  useless. 
There  were  8000  Benedictines ;  1600  Carthusians  ;  900 
Cistercians  ;  1500  Premonstrants  ;  2500  Jesuits  ;  and  others  ; 
the  grand  total  amounting  to  over  70,000  monks  and  friars. 
There  were  some  80,000  nuns — 12,500  nuns  of  Saint  Clare, 
3000  Carmelites,  9000  Ursulines,  18,000  Benedictines.  As  a 
matter  of  fact  the  number  of  nunneries  was  countless.  So 
much  for  the  clergy. 

From  the  mighty  lord,  who  was  a  great  personage  at 
Court  and  owned  a  sumptuous  castle  in  the  country — 
The  Nobility,  like  the  Duke  of  fipernon's  castle  at  Cardillac, 
which  was  practically  a  royal  palace — to  the  humble 
country  squire  perishing  of  hunger  on  his  poverty-stricken 
estate,  the  nobility  represented  all  manner  of  people  of  varying 
fortunes.  But  they  all  possessed  certain  privileges  of  their 
rank  in  common — exemption  from  taxation,  and  the  right  to 
offer  personal  service  as  cavalrymen  in  time  of  war  in  good 
positions.  In  the  reign  of  Henry  IV  they  certainly  possessed 
all  the  virtues  and  vices  characteristic  of  their  kind  :  care- 
lessness, valour,  gaiety,  extravagance,  familiarity  varied  by 
insolence,  a  capacity  for  deep  devotion,  and  provocative 
manners  ;  they  were  ready  at  one  moment  to  embrace  a  man 
and  at  the  next  to  fight  a  duel  with  him.     They  were  charming, 

*  These  were  the  members  of  the  third  religious  order  of  Saint  Francis 
of  Assisi.     They  derived  their  name  from  their  headquarters  in  the  Rue 
Picpus,  in  Paris,    (Tr.) 
404 


KINGDOM    OF   FRANCE   ABOUT    1600 

brilliant  and  terrible  people.  They  may  be  divided  into  two 
categories  :  those  who  went  to  Court,  and  those  who  never  left 
their  estates  in  the  country. 

To  the  first  category  belonged  the  highest  of  the  nobility, 
"  princes  and  barons."  They  were  rich  and  grew  even  more 
wealthy  through  the  patronage  of  the  King,  who  made  them 
governors  of  provinces,  ambassadors  or  Court  officials,  such 
as  Masters  of  the  Horse,  Grand  Cupbearers,  &c.  They  made 
a  great  show  and  were  surrounded  by  a  suite  of  followers  who 
lived  upon  their  bounty  and  gathered  up  the  crumbs  that 
fell  from  their  tables.  They  kept  open  house,  had  great  mansions 
in  Paris,  and  fine  castles  in  the  country.  They  were  in  their 
way  potentates,  and  considered  themselves  more  or  less  the 
masters,  as  became  abundantly  clear  during  the  minority  of 
Louis  XIII.  After  them  came  the  whole  crowd  of  nobles  who 
tried  to  make  their  way  by  securing  posts  at  Court.  By  dint 
of  perseverance  they  might  be  made  pantlers,  equerries,  or 
gentlemen-in-waiting ;  even  then  they  were  only  on  duty 
for  three  months  in  the  year  and  obtained  extremely  modest 
salaries.  But  there  was  always  the  chance  of  finding  some 
opportunity  for  putting  themselves  forward  !  Unfortunately 
for  them.  Court  life,  even  for  three  months  out  of  the  twelve, 
was  ruinous.  To  live  up  to  his  rank  a  man  had  so  many 
expenses  in  the  way  of  dress,  horses,  food,  and  servants,  that 
moderate  patrimonies  were  exhausted  in  the  process.  Fashions 
were  constantly  changing  in  accordance  with  the  demands  of 
extravagant  luxury,  and  unless  he  wished  to  be  a  laughing- 
stock, a  courtier  was  obliged  to  follow  them.  "  The  amount 
spent  by  the  nobility  on  clothes,"  says  la  Noue,  "  is  enormous 
and  excessive."  And,  indeed,  the  fact  which  particularly  struck 
strangers  about  these  Court  nobles  was  that  they  ended  in 
poverty,  in  spite  of  the  gambling  at  cards  and  at  dice  in  which  they 
indulged  in  the  hope  of  replenishing  their  purses.  "  If  wars  have 
brought  us  four  ounces  of  poverty,"  observes  la  Noue,  "  our 
follies  are  responsible  for  twelve  ;  "  and  according  to  him  these 
follies  consisted  of  imnecessary  expenditure  on  clothes,  food, 
furniture,  and  buildings. 

How  much  calmer  was  the  lot  of  those  who  remained  in  the 
country  I     "Their  simple  secluded  life  in  their  castles,"  says 

405 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

Suriano,  "  entailed  neither  great  expense,  liveries,  rich  clothes, 
valuable  horses  nor  banquets."  And  the  number  of  these  lesser 
nobles  who  lived  on  their  own  estates  was  very  large  ;  France 
was  full  of  them.  Under  Henry  IV,  courtiers  were  a  mere 
handful  by  comparison  with  the  nobles  scattered  all  over  the 
country  in  their  manors  and  little  chateaux.  There  they  lived 
the  dignified  lives  befitting  their  rank,  but  simply  and  quietly, 
side  by  side  with  the  villagers  in  whose  interests  they  shared, 
speaking  the  same  dialect  and  playing  the  same  games,  culti- 
vating their  land  and  visiting  each  other  on  horseback  ;  for 
they  travelled  about  a  great  deal  in  the  neighbourhood  of  their 
property.  Olivier  de  Serres,  in  his  ThSdtre  d' Agriculture  gives 
them  good  advice  on  the  subject  of  suitable  buildings  and 
furniture,  and  the  stocking  of  their  houses  with  everything 
necessary  for  their  rural  existence.  But  nothing  can  give  a 
Diary  o!  the  better  idea  of  their  manner  of  life  than  a  perusal 
Sieur  de  of  the  entertaining  diary  written  by  one  of  them 

Gouberville.  — ^the  Sieur  de  Gouberville,  Seigneur  of  Mesnil-au- 
Val,  a  small  parish  of  the  Cotentin  near  Cherbourg  in  the  Val- 
de-Saire.  Monsieur  de  Gouberville  was  an  old  bachelor  who 
inhabited  his  manor,  surrounded  by  some  fourteen  to  eighteen 
"  serving-men  and  chambermaids,"  people  of  the  neighbour- 
hood, all  living  together  and  eating  at  the  same  table.  He  used 
to  beat  them,  but  also  nursed  them  devotedly  when  they  were 
ill.  For  wages  he  paid  them  the  price  of  a  bushel  of  corn  a  day, 
and,  in  addition,  one  suit  of  clothes  a  year  and  their  shoes.  His 
own  dress  was  serviceable  though  not  lacking  in  elegance.  He 
wore  a  fine  linen  ruff  trimmed  with  lace,  hose  made  of  velvet, 
drugget  or  satin  ;  false  trunk-hose — riding-breeches — of  tan 
leather.  His  doublets  were  made  of  red  cloth  and  his  coats 
and  cloaks  were  black.  He  wore  felt  or  velvet  hats,  leather 
capes  in  wet  weather  and  boots  that  he  had  made  at  home  by  a 
journeyman  bootmaker.  In  the  great  hall  of  his  manor, 
which  also  served  as  a  kitchen,  in  front  of  the  huge  chimney  with 
its  high  mantelpiece,  where  trunks  of  trees  were  burnt,  he 
took  his  meals  seated  at  one  end  of  the  massive  table  with  his 
people  round  him  eating  off  pewter  dishes.  His  chief  article 
of  diet  was  meat,  butcher's  meat,  plenty  of  fowls,  not  much 
venison,  except  in  pasties  ;  hares,  rabbits  from  the  warren, 
406 


KINGDOM   OF    FRANCE   ABOUT   1600 

sea  fish  in  abundance — the  beach  was  a  stone's  throw  from 
his  door — no  fruit,  and  very  few  vegetables.  He  drank  cider 
and  cultivated  twenty-nine,  whilst  knowing  as  many  as  forty, 
different  varieties  of  apple-trees.  When  he  wanted  wine  he 
bought  it  in  the  town — claret  or  Bordeaux,  Burgundy,  Anjou, 
and  Orleans.  His  house  was  lighted  by  candles.  By  way  of 
amusement  he  played  dice,  backgammon,  or  cards  at  home  ; 
or  he  would  go  and  watch  the  people  of  the  parish  playing 
skittles  and  bowls,  and  the  old  French  games  of  croche  and 
soule  or  ^vrestling.  He  hunted  and  had  plenty  of  dogs  ;  he 
knew  how  to  handle  a  musket  and  a  pistol,  and  how  to  use 
goshawks  and  ferrets.  He  was  not  much  of  a  reader  and  at 
most  had  Amadis  de  Gaule,  a  fashionable  novel  of  the  day,  read 
aloud  to  him  during  the  winter  evenings  in  the  chimney- 
corner.  His  chief  occupation  was  the  cultivation  of  his  fields 
in  which  he  grew  wheat,  oats,  and  barley.  He  visited  them 
every  day  and  watched  his  people  at  work,  unless  it  "  poured 
the  whole  day  "  when  he  remained  "  at  home."  When  he 
wanted  to  gather  in  his  harvest,  in  his  capacity  as  lord  of  the 
manor,  he  had  all  his  tenants,  from  whom  he  had  a  right  to 
demand  forced  labour,  summoned  "  by  monitory  "  at  sermon 
time  during  High  Mass.  On  the  appointed  day  they  all  arrived 
to  the  number  of  some  fifty  to  seventy  men  and  women.  They 
worked  gaily,  and  in  the  evening  there  was  a  huge  supper 
at  the  manor,  after  which  they  danced  until  a  late  hour  of  the 
night.  By  way  of  cattle,  Monsieur  de  Gouberville  had  a  number 
of  horses,  oxen,  and  cows,  "  horned  cattle,"  and  pigs.  But  they 
all  wandered  about  pretty  freely  in  the  forests,  and  their  owner 
was  very  vague  as  to  their  numbers.  When  he  wanted  to 
catch  any  of  them  he  had  to  organize  battues  and  summon 
everybody  in  the  district  to  take  part  in  them.  Taking  it  all  in 
all,  he  led  a  somewhat  rough  life,  but  one  that  was  healthy  and 
invigorating  and  very  similar  to  that  of  the  peasants  round 
him,  attached  to  the  soil  and  socially  speaking,  firmly  rooted 
in  it. 

This  calm  and  solid  stability  was  also  characteristic  of  the 
Third  Estate.  It  is  true  that  the  civil  wars  darkened  the 
horizon  and  aroused  lively  passions ;  but  once  the  danger 
was  past,  the  people  all  went  back  to  their  work,  obliterated 

407 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

the  traces  of  the  conflict,  and  re-estabHshed  the  peaceful  appear- 
ance of  the  countryside  once  more.  Foreigners  visiting  France 
The  Third  ^*  ^^^  ^^^  ^^  ^^^  sixteenth  and  the  beginning  of 

Estate  or  the  seventeenth  century  were   chiefly  struck  by 

plebeians.  the  fact  that  the  masses  seemed  hardworking  and 

thrifty  and,  by  their  clothes  which  were  usually  "  seemly  and 
decent,"  showed  that  they  were  comfortably  off.  "They  are 
very  particular  about  their  food  and  their  dress,"  one  of  these 
travellers  remarked.  These  visitors  did  not,  however,  shut  their 
eyes  to  their  faults,  but  considered  the  members  of  the  lower 
classes  at  this  time  gamblers  and  rakes,  who  swore  and  took 
the  name  of  God  in  vain,  and  were  "  hasty  and  hot-tempered  " 
and  above  all  frivolous,  with  that  incurable  frivolity  which 
made  Charles  V  declare  :  "  They  are  wise  without  seeming 
so."  Finally  they  were  ardent  to  the  point  of  exaggeration 
in  their  religious  feelings,  either  for  or  against  a  given  point 
of  view.  In  the  eyes  of  strangers,  the  artisans  and  peasants 
appeared  somewhat  coarse  and  brutal,  at  all  events  on  occa- 
sion. But  they  rendered  justice  to  their  good  qualities.  "  It 
is  generally  noticeable,"  they  remarked,  "that  the  people 
of  France  are  everywhere  good."  They  were  respectful  towards 
the  great,  the  nobles,  and  the  officers  of  justice  and  of  finance  ; 
they  were  full  of  kind  attention  and  courtesy  towards  strangers  ; 
hospitable  ;  and  deferential  to  women,  to  whom  they  allowed 
a  great  deal  of  freedom.  The  women,  it  was  observed,  for  their 
part,  were  pious  and  thrifty  ;  they  went  to  Mass  every  day  and 
spent  the  whole  of  Sunday  in  church  attending  Low  Mass, 
High  Mass,  sermon,  and  vespers.  The  utmost  that  Lippomano 
had  to  say  against  them  was  that  their  thrift  verged  upon  avarice. 
As  for  morals  in  general,  Brantome's  scandalous  stories 
must  not  be  taken  too  literally.  He  was  a  scandalmonger, 
Morals.  only  too  ready  to  collect    doubtful    versions    of 

adventures  or  tales  more  or  less  founded  on  fact,  and  circulated 
as  jokes  or  funny  stories.  The  members  of  the  middle  classes, 
as  well  as  many  of  the  noble  families,  could  furnish  endless 
examples  of  irreproachable  conduct  and  domestic  virtue.  The 
names  of  the  women  who  became  notorious  in  connexion  with 
Henry  IV  have  been  handed  down  to  us  ;  whilst  nothing 
is  said  about  all  those  who,  like  the  beautiful  and  sagacious 
408 


KINGDOM   OF    FRANCE    ABOUT  1600 

Madame  de  Guercheville  or  Madame  de  Sainte-Beuve,  repulsed 
his  overtures.  Nevertheless,  it  must  be  confessed  that  in 
comparison  with  modern  tastes  and  standards  there  was  a 
certain  lack  of  delicacy  at  this  period.  Monsieur  de  Gouberville, 
for  instance,  had  among  his  servants  some  illegitimate  brothers 
of  his  own,  whom  he  may  perhaps  have  treated  slightly  differ- 
ently to  the  rest,  but  the  distinction  was  scarcely  noticeable. 
He  used  also  frequently  to  go  to  Russy  near  Bayeux  to  visit 
a  certain  uncle,  who  was  a  worthy  ecclesiastic,  living  on  the 
revenues  of  cures  in  which,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  he  never  resided. 
Now  this  good  priest  presented  his  nephew  with  little  cousins 
whose  mother  was  only  a  servant,  a  circumstance  which  does 
not  seem  to  have  shocked  the  Sire  of  Mesnil-au-Val,  any  more 
than  the  country  at  large  was  shocked  at  the  spectacle  of  Henry 
IV  bringing  up  his  children  by  Marie  de'  Medici,  Gabrielle 
d'Estrees,  and  the  Marquise  de  Verneuil  altogether  pell-mell  at 
Saint  Germain-en-Laye.  Public  opinion  was  less  strict  on 
such  matters  than  it  is  to-day,  both  with  regard  to  conduct  and 
language.  For  the  things  that  were  said,  written,  or  read  in  the 
circle  of  young  ladies  of  good  family,  who  superintended  the 
education  of  the  Dauphin  of  France  and  of  his  brothers  and 
sisters  at  Saint-Germain,  would  never  be  tolerated  in  any  modest 
or  well-behaved  family  to-day,  especially  before  children.  The 
Diary  of  Jean  Heroard,  Louis  XIII's  doctor  when  he  w^as  a  child, 
gives  us  plenty  of  information  on  this  subject.  The  people  of 
this  age  were  more  free  and  easy  than  we  are,  or  we  have 
become  more  scrupulous. 

The  Third  Estate  included  the  magistrates,  the  merchants, 
all  classes  of  citizens,  artisans,  the  masses  in  the  towns,  and  the 
country  folk. 

Noel  de  Fail,  a  counsellor  in  the  Parliament  of  Rennes,  has 
described  the  life  of  the  peasantry  in  the  sixteenth  century  in 
The  sixteenth-  ^^^  tales,  which  abound  in  fun  and  good  humour, 
century  The    rough  work   in  the    fields  was   very  much 

peasant.  the  same  as  it  is  to-day,  neither  more  wretched 

nor  less  hard  and  monotonous.  Only  the  merry-making  on 
Sundays  seems  to  have  been  more  frankly  whole-hearted.  On 
the  weekly  day  of  rest  the  young  people,  after  having  been  to 
church,  might  be  seen  practising  archery,  playing  at  prisoner's 

409 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

base,  jumping,  and  racing,  whilst  the  old  men  would  look  on 
as  they  sat  chatting  under  the  village  trees.  Then  to  the 
sound  of  a  rebec,  a  hautboy,  or  a  flute,  the  young  people  would 
begin  to  dance,  and  their  elders,  remembering  their  own  exploits 
of  former  days,  would  get  up  mechanically  and  "  beat  time  with 
their  feet,"  to  the  tune  they  knew  so  well.  After  this  they 
would  carouse  in  the  tavern  when  glasses  would  be  clinked 
{dringuer  or  trinquer  from  the  German  trinken)  to  the  singing 
of  songs.  They  did  not  drink  brandy,  which  was  a  rare  and 
extremely  expensive  drug,  and  was  only  sold  by  the  apothecary. 
These  country  rustics,  like  the  masses  in  the  towns,  dressed 
roughly  during  the  week,  but  kept  themselves  clean  and  neat  on 
Sundays,  and  above  all,  were  well  fed.  Writers  boast  of  "  the 
good  nourishment  both  in  food  and  drink  to  which  the  masses 
were  accustomed  as  they  were  in  no  other  country."  They 
had  four  or  five  meals  a  day,  not  much  bread  and  fruit,  but,  like 
Monsieur  de  Gouberville,  plenty  of  meat.  In  the  towns,  public 
cooks  and  pastrycooks  (people  who  sold  meat-pasties)  retailed 
all  kinds  of  ready  cooked  dishes  in  abundance.  They  ate  beef 
and  mutton — pork  was  left  for  the  poorest — lamb,  salt  fish, 
salmon,  cod,  and  herrmgs  ;  and  by  way  of  vegetables,  peas, 
rice,  artichokes,  and  lentils. 

The  life  of  the  artisans  in  the  towns  was  extremely  cir- 
cumscribed and  strictly  regulated,  in  the  sense  that  there  was 
The  sixteenth-  ^^  such  thing  as  free  labour.  If  a  man  wished 
century  to  practise   a  trade,  he  had  to  join  the  corpora- 

artisan,  tion  of  that  trade,  go  through  his  apprenticeship 

and  be  made  a  companion,  after  which  he  had  to  produce 
a  masterpiece  in  order  to  be  admitted  to  the  rank  of  master, 
a  position  to  which  not  many  attained  and  which  it  was  neither 
easy  nor  cheap  to  reach,  as  the  price  of  the  masterships  was 
fixed.  The  work  done  was  subject  to  the  laws  of  the  corpora- 
tion and  an  individual  was  not  free  to  make  anything  he  chose. 
But  people  were  used  to  the  system  and  the  workman  "  had 
plenty  of  industry  and  worked  merrily."  A  great  many  disputes, 
tumults,  and  strikes  took  place,  but,  on  the  whole,  the  industry 
which  belonged  to  a  particular  place  or  district  went  on  quietly 
enough.  People  sometimes  grew  rich,  and  it  was  chiefly  the 
merchants  who  amassed  fortunes. 
410 


KINGDOM   OF   FRANCE    ABOUT    1600 

The  merchant  class  was  the  one  that  had  command  of  the 
money,  and  was  accordingly  pandered  to  and  fawned  upon  ; 
The  Merchant  but  the  nobility  despised  this  manner  of  life  and 
Class.  would    have  considered   themselves  disgraced  if 

they  had  been  obliged  to  make  a  living  by  trade.  In  the  towns 
the  merchants  were  the  highest  in  rank,  they  formed  the  muni- 
cipalities, and  were  the  notables.  But  it  is  curious  to  observe 
that  they  too  had  such  a  low  opinion  of  their  calling  that 
the  greatest  wish  of  their  lives  was  to  make  their  sons  royal 
officials — "  functionaries."  To  amass  enough  wealth  to  send 
their  boys  to  study  at  the  universities — at  the  University  of 
Paris  alone  there  were  15,000  students — and  afterwards  to 
buy  them  some  post  was  the  dream  of  their  ambition.  Already 
the  petty  nobility  who  were  badly  off  were  trying  to  make  their 
way  into  the  Parliaments,  whilst  townsmen's  sons  aspired 
to  become  judges,  lawyers,  treasurers,  tax-collectors,  and  re- 
ceivers of  all  kinds.  The  Kings  raised  no  objection  to  this 
movement,  for,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  tradition  itself  demanded 
that  the  posts  of  Chancellor  of  France  and  Secretary  of  State 
should  be  given  only  to  members  of  the  Third  Estate — a  great 
privilege  ! 

And  thus  above  or  on  a  par  with  the  merchants  we  find 
the  whole  citizen  class  of  magistrates,  men  of  law,  and  others, 
Magistrates.  dignified  and  honourable  people,  excellent 
parishioners,  charitable,  steady,  in  enjoyment  of  easy  cir- 
cumstances and  respected  by  all.  They  were  conspicuous  on 
account  of  then-  correct  and  quiet  dress,  and  their  grave  and 
measured  gait.  They  were  good  husbands,  good  fathers,  and 
good  Christians.  They  had  a  town-house  and  a  country-house 
where  they  went  for  change  of  air.  They  were  quiet  and 
moderate  in  their  behaviour,  worthy  people  and  loyal  subjects. 
It  was  from  their  ranks  that  the  "  politicians  "  were  recruited. 
But  they  could  also  be  merry  and  gay,  and  physical  exercises 
were  among  their  principal  diversions. 

For  physical  exercises — the  last  factor  common  to  the  whole 
nation — were  universally  popular  about  the  year  1600.  Nobles, 
Love  of  out-  burghers,  and  peasants  alike,  gave  themselves 
door  games.  up  ardently  to  all  kinds  of  games  that  had  sur- 
vived from  the  Middle  Ages.     The  English,  who  were  surprised 

411 


CENTURY    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE 

by  this  fashion,  copied  it,  though  they  considered  the  French 
"  very  immoderate."  The  most  popular  sport — from  the  old 
French  word  desport,  game — was  the  game  of  paume,  which 
the  Englishman  Sir  Robert  Dallington,  who  visited  France  in 
1597,  calls  tennis.  "It  is  in  greater  vogue  here,"  he  says, 
"  than  in  the  whole  of  the  rest  of  Christendom,  as  is  shown  by 
the  number  of  tennis-com'ts  which  are  to  be  found  everywhere 
in  such  numbers  that  there  is  not  a  single  borough  or  town 
in  France  that  does  not  possess  one  or  several.  At  Orleans 
there  are  sixty,  and  in  Paris  I  cannot  say  how  many  hundreds. 
Frenchmen  are  born  with  a  racquet  in  their  hands."  Talking 
of  pall-mall  he  adds,  "  I  am  exceedingly  surprised  that  among 
all  the  mad  and  ridiculous  games  we  have  brought  over  from 
France  we  have  not  introduced  this  one  into  England  " 

There  was  much  that  was  healthy  about  the  subjects  of 
Henry  IV.  They  lived  in  one  of  the  roughest  and  most  brutal. 
Sterling  though  also  one  of  the  most  original  and  attrac- 

Qualities  of  the  tive  periods  of  French  history.  The  bad  sides 
nation  as  a  of  this  epoch  which  general  history  reveals, 
whole.  ^Q  iggg  than  justice  to  the  qualities  of  honesty, 

diligence,  stability,  and  regularity  possessed  by  the  people. 

Sources.  Dallington,  The  View  of  France,  1598 ;  1892 ;  Delidce 
Gallice,  1609  ;  Jodocus  Sincerus,  Itinerarium  Gallice,  1616  ;  G.  Hegenitius, 
Gallo-Brabanticum,  1630  ;  Th.  Erpenius,  De  peregrinatione  gallica,  1631  ; 
Abr.  Golnitz,  Ulysses  Belgico-Gallicus,  1631  ;  H.  Du  Boys,  De  Vorigine 
et  autoriti  des  rois,  1604  ;  F.  Le  Jay,  De  la  dignite  des  rois  et  princes  souve- 
rains,  1589  ;  P.  Constant,  De  Vexcellence  et  dignite  des  rois,  1598  ;  N. 
Bergeron,  Police  ginirale  du  royaume  de  France,  1617  ;  C.  de  Figon, 
Discours  des  Etats  et  offices  de  France,  1579  ;  J.  Huranlt,  Des  offices  d'Estat, 
1588  ;  C.  Loyseau,  Cinq  livres  du  droit  des  offices,  1613  ;  C.  Fauchet, 
Origine  des  dignites  et  magistrals  de  France,  1600  ;  C.  Chappuzeau,  Trait6 
des  diverses  juridictions  de  France,  1618  ;  La  Roche-Flavin,  Treize  livres 
des  Parlements  de  France,  1617  ;  Cimber  and  Donjou,  Archives  curieuses 
de  Vhistoire  de  France,  vols,  x  and  xiv;  Isambert,  Receuil  gdndral  des 
anciennes  lois  fratigaises,  vols,  xiv  and  xv  ;  Traits  des  finances  de  France, 
1580  ;  N.  Froumanteau,  Le  Secret  des  finances  de  France,  1581  ;  Traits 
des  revenue  et  dipenses  de  France  en  Vannee  1607,  in  Revue  retrospective, 
vol.  iv  ;  J.  Hennequin,  Le  Guidon  gindral  des  finances,  1610  ;  N.  Remond, 
Sommaire  traitd  des  revenus  et  dipenses  des  finances  de  France,  1622  ;  Le 
nombre  des  ecclesiastiques  de  France,  celui  des  religieux  et  religieuses,  in 
Archives  Curieuses,  vol.  xiv  ;  C.  Loyseau,  Traitd  des  seigneuries,  1608  ; 
Nicolas  Rapin,  Les  Plaisirs  d'un  gentilhomme  champetre,  1575  ;  Gilles  de 
Gouberville,  Journal,  ed.  Beaurepaire  and  Blagny,  1892-1895  ;  Noel 
412 


KINGDOM   OF   FRANCE    ABOUT   1600 

du  Fail,  CEuvres  facdtieuses,  ed.  Assezat,  1874  ;  Jean  Heroard,  Journal, 
ed.  Soulie,  1869. 

Works.  G.  Weill,  Lcs  theories  siir  le  pouvoir  royal  en  France  pendant 
les  guerres  de  religion,  1892  ;  N.  Valois,  Le  conseil  du  roi  aux  XIV',  XV' 
et  XVr  siecles  1889  ;  Fauvelet  du  Toe,  Histoire  des  secretaires  d'Etat, 
1668  ;  J.  Joly,  Trois  livres  des  offices  de  France,  1638  ;  Guyot,  Traite  des 
droits,  fonctions  ...  en  France,  1786  ;  P.  Picaut,  Traitd  des  Parlements, 
1679  ;  de  Bastard  d'Estang,  Les  Parlements  de  France,  1857  ;  Mallet, 
Comptes  rendus  de  V administration  des  finances  du  royaume  de  France, 
1789  ;  C.  de  Beaune,  Traitd  de  la  Chambre  des  Comptes,  1647  ;  Le  P.  Daniel, 
Histoire  de  la  milice  frangaise,  1721  ;  Fagniez,  UEconomie  sociale  de  la 
France  sous  Henri  IV,  1897  ;  P.  de  Vaissiere,  Geniilshommes  canipagnards 
de  Vancienne  France,  1903. 


413 


INDEX 


AoADfeMiB  Frangaise,  346 

du  Palais,  345,  346,  363 
Adda  (river),  33,  34 
Adrets,  Baron  des,  206 
Agen,  174,  279 
Agnadello,  Battle  of,  34 
Aids,  Court  of,  395 
Aix,  79,  378,  390 ;    Parliament  of,  161, 

162 
Alarcon  (Spanish  captain),  62,  64,  75 
Alba,  Duke  of,  140,  150,  152,  203,  213- 

216,  225 
Alberti  (architect),  349 
d'Albret,  Alain,  3,  6,  7 

Catherine,  310 

Henri,  52,  87,   157,   165.     See  also 
Beam,  Navarre,  and  Henry  IV 

Jean,  51,  157 

Jeanne,  87,  165,  220,  224,  225,  241 
Alcazar,  Madrid,  65,  67 
Alen9on,  290 

Dukeof,  5,  45,  46,  61,87 

Francis,  Duke  of,  afterwards  Duke 
of  Anjou,  124,  238,  239,  246,  247, 
252 
Alessandria,  19  ;   sack  of,  26 
Alexander  VI,  Pope,  13,  16-18,  24,  30 
Alfonso  V  of  Aragon,  10 
AHonso  of  Calabria,  12,  14,  16,  17 
Alsace,  138 

Alviano  (Venetian  captain),  34 
Amadis  de  Gaule,  407 
Amboisc,  Chateau,  1,  2,  9,  12,  20,  31,  39, 
45,  50,  109,  183,  185,  351,  354 

Conspiracy  of,  180-186,  341 

Edictof,  211,  216,  218,  219 

Peace  of,  212 
d'Amboise.  Cardinal  Georges,  22-25,  27, 
28, 30, 32,  34,  35,  38 ;  tomb  of,  358 

Chaumont,  28,  34-36 

family,  115,  116 
Amiens,  37,  265,  279,  311,  312 
Amyot,  Jacques,  340 
Anacroon,  340 
Ancenis,  6 

Anov-le-Franc,  Chateau,  154,  351 
d'Andelot,  Francis,  131,  146,  164,  165, 
216,  218,  221 


Androuet,  see  Cerceau,  du 

Anet,  Chateau,  129,  351,  352,  355,  356 

d'Angennes,  274 

Angers,  174,  279,  341 

Angouleme,  216 

Bastard  of,  232,  233 

Charles,  Count  of,  5,  6,  44,  81 

Francis,  Count  of,  31-33,  37,  41  ;  see 
also  Francis  I 
Anjou,  45,  62,  367 

Charles,  Count  of,  10 

Duke  of,  afterwards  Henry  III,  220, 
223,  229,  230,  232,  238  ;  see  also 
Henry  III 

Francis,  Duke  of,  247,  252-255,  341  ; 
see  also  Alengon 

Rene,  Count  of,  10 

Renee  of,  145 
d'Annebaut,  122 
Antwerp,  255 
Appian,  340 
Apulia,  29 

Aragon,  10,  13,  14,  41 
Aragon,  Ferdinand,  King  of,  157 
Architecture,  349-357 
Arcueil,  208 
Ardres,  52,  53,  81 
Aretino,  Pietro,  123 
Argenteuil,  367 
d'Argouges,  M.,  58 
Aries,  79 

ArmestorfE  (Austrian  envoy),  51 
Army,  the,  398,  399 
Arnaud,  157 
Arques,  Battle  of,  289 
d'Arques  ("minion"),  257 
Arsenal,  the,  270,  316,  318,  326,  400 
Artois,  14,  63-65,  76,  366 
Asti,  14,  18,  19,  26 

d'Aubigne,  Agrippa,  184,  200,  225,  270, 
286 

Jean,  184 
d'Aubigny,  Stuart  (commander),  17,  26, 

29,  30,  299 
Auch,  345 
Augsburg,  deputation  from,  136 

Interim  of,  136 
Augustinians,  403 

415 


INDEX 


Augustus,  349 

d'Aumale,  Claude,  Count,  131,  132 

Duke,  139,  140,  145,  149,  216,  219, 
229,  232,  259,  265,  278,  311 
d'Aumont,  Marshal,  268,  273,  278 
Auneau,  Battle  of,  263 
Austrasia,  138 
Auvergne,  368 

Avenelles,  dea  (Huguenot),  182 
I'Aventureux,  Fleurange,  42 
Aversa,  76 
Avignon,  161 
Azay-le-Rideau,  Chateau,  239 

Baif,  Antoine  de,  339,  343 

Bailiffs,  385,  396 

Balafre,  Le,  see  Guise,  Henry,  Duke  of 

Balaruc,  368 

Baldassarini,  see  Beaujoyeux 

Bale,  169 

Balzac,  266 

Bar,  Duchy  of,  366 

Barbarossa,  Khaer  Eddin,  78 

Barcelona,  Treaty  of,  13 

Barricades,  Day  of  the,  267,  268,  270,  276 

Bartas,  du  (poet  and  soldier),  292,  339, 
345 

Baschi,  Perron  de,  13 

Bastille,  94,  270,  318,  324,  388 

Batarnay,  Imbert  de,  23 

Baudricourt,  Jean  de,  12 

Bayard,  Chevalier,  35,  46,  55 

Bayeux,  205 

Bayonne,  59,  72,  213,  216 

Conference  of,  213-216,  223,  362 

Beam,  157,  188,  241,  257 

Henry  of,  220,  221,  224,  226,  227, 
236-239,  241,  251,  255,  256,  258, 
260-263,  332  ;  see  also  Navarre, 
Henry  of,  and  Henry  IV 

Beauce,  263 

Beaufort,    Marquise    de,    see   d'Estrees, 
Gabrielle 

Beaugency, 6 

Beaujeu,  Anne  de,  2-8,  11,  22,  56 
Pierre  de,  2-6,  8,  56 

Beaujoyeux,  Balthazard,  364 

Beaulieu,  Edict  of,  248,  251 

Beaune,    Regnault    de.    Archbishop    of 
Bourges,  301 

Beauvais-Nangis  (counsellor),  274 

Bellay,  Cardinal  du,  355 

Bellay,  Joachim  du,  123,  336-339,  343- 
346 

Belleau  (poet),  343 

Bellievre  (minister),  259,  324 

Benedictines,  404  ;   nuns,  404 

Bergerac,  Peace  of,  251,  253,  254 

Berquin,  Louis,  156,  159 

Berry,  Jean,  Duke  of,  108 

416 


Besme,  murderer  of  Coligny,  232 
Beza,  Theodore,  173,  199,  200 
Bibliotheque  Nationale,  8,  83,  105,  106, 
221,  337 
Royale,  105,  337 
Bicocca,  Battle  of  the,  55,  99 
Bidassoa,  71,  75 

Birague,  Chancellor  de,  225,  230 
Biron,  Duke  of,  254,  268,  287,  324 
Bishoprics,  the  Three,  151,  291 
Blois,  Chateau,  20,  21,  31,  38,  39,  41,  80, 
109,  110,  113,  159,  174,  182    183, 
207,  216,  224,  225,  242,  250,  272- 
275,  279,  280,  300,  351,  354 
Edict  of,  375 
Ordinance  of,  251 
Blue  Penitents,  245 
Boccador  (architect),  113 
Bodin,  Jean,  251,  341 
Bohemia,  King  of,  48,  50 
Bois  de  Boulogne,  112 
Boissy  (Master  of  the  Household),  45, 

92 
Boleyn,  Anne,  150 
Bologna,  35,  36  ;  Concordat  of,  92 
Bona,  Duchess  of  Milan,  11 
Bonnivet,  Admiral,  45,  51,  53,  55,  59-61, 

90 
Bontemps,  Pierre,  360 
Bordeaux,  80,  213,  279,  280,  347,  367, 
368,  378,   388,  397  ;    insurrection  at, 
130 
Borgia,  Caesar,  24,  26,  27,  29,  236 
Bossuet,  326 
Boucard,  M.  de,  120 
Bouchavannes  (counsellor),  230 
Bouchefort,  quoted,  219 
Bouillon,  Duke  of,  309 
Boulogne,  81,  149  ;  taken,  134,  135 
Bourbon,  Antoine  de.  King  of  Navarre, 
81,  142,  147 
Antoinette  de,  131 
Cardinal  de,  204,  215,  257-259,  271, 

273,  278,  280,  284,  288,  289,  293 
Constable  Charles  de,  45,   46,   56- 

60,  62,  63,  68,  70,  74,  86,  125 
Duke  of,  3 
Pierre  de,  13 
Suzanne  de,  56,  57 
Bourbons,  the,  176,  178,  182,  185-188, 

198,  204,  289 
Bourdaisiere,  Babou  de  la,  165 
Bourdichon,  Jean,  108 
Bourdin  (Attorney-General),  166 
Bourg,  Anne  du,  167,  178 
Bourgeois  de  Paris,  Journal  d^un,  112,  155 
Bourges,  6,  24,  174,  235,  340,  341,  388  ; 

Archbishop  of,  302,  304 
Bourneuf,  217 
Bourre,  Jean,  1,  2 


INDEX 


Brandenburg,  Elector  of,  325 

Margrave,  Joachim  of,  48,  50,  51 
Brantome,  quoted,  2,  9,  44,  91,  96,  119, 
122,  128,  129,  147,  152,  180,  180,  193, 
197,  211,  228,  408 
Brera,  Milan,  11 
Brescia,  34 
Bresse,  313 

Breton.  Guillaume  Le,  113 
GillesLe,  114 
Jacques  Le,  113 
Breze,  Louis  de,  126  ;  tomb  of,  116 
Bri9onnet,  Guillaume,  12,  17,  157 
Brie,  La,  4 

Brienne,  Count  of,  283 
Brigade,  the,  see  Pleiade 
Brigard  (procurator-royal),  297 
Brion,  Chabot  de,  69,  70,  79,  90,  91,  116, 

122 
Briquemaut  (Huguenot),  229,  238 
Brissac,    Marshal,    152,    177,    198,    306. 

307 
Brisson,  President,  297 
Brittany.  5,  6,  25,  62,  79,  312,  313,  367, 
375 
Anne,  Duchess  of,  6-9,   14,  23-25, 
31-33,  35.  37,  39,  40,  99,  108,  109 
Francis,  Duke  of,  3,  5,  0 
Bronzino's  Venus  and  Cupid,  115 
Brosse,  Jean  de,  see  Penthievre 
Bruges,  361 

Louis  de,  69 
Brussels,  142,  143,  148,  325,  361 
Bruyere,  La,  249 
Buckingham,  Duke  of,  7 
Bude,  Francois,  93 

Guillaume,  104,  105 
Bullant,  Jean,  349,  356-359 
Burchard  (Papal  Master  of  Ceremonies), 

20  ;  his  Diarium,  20 
Burgundy,  37,  48,  52,  58,  62-64,  66,  68- 
70,  72,"  73.  76,  79,  135,  152,  301,  324, 
307,  375,  390 
Burgundy,  Charles  the  Bold,  Duke  of,  7, 
48,  52,  63 
Mary  of,  7,  48 
Burleigh,  Lord,  208 
Bury,  Chateau,  351 
Busbecq  (ambassador),  255,  259 

Cabrieres.  161 

Caen,  205,  388 

Caesar,  349 

Cahors,  241,  254 

Caietano,  291,  296 

Calabria,  28 

Calais,  52,  53,  151,  152,  208.  311  ;  taken 

from    the    English,    134,    149,    150; 

taken  by  the  Spaniards,  3il 
Calvimont,  Jean  de,  73 


Calvin,  Jean,  102,  103,  167-174,  181,  336 

Calvinism,  189 

Calvinists,  174,  178,  186,  212 

Cambray,  137,  255,  312  ;  League  of,  34, 
36  ;   Peace  of,  77,  79 

Canada,  colonization  of,  319 

Canal,  Briare,  319 

Canal  du  Midi,  319 

Candale,  Countess  of,  258 

Capets,  the,  151,  377 

Capello  (envoy),  133 

Capua,  29 

Capuchins,  404 

Carcassonne,  195 

Cardaillac,  the  (bell),  380 

Cardillac,  404 

Carinthia,  139 

Carmelites,  403  ;  nuns,  404 

Carthusians,  404 

Casa,  della,  8 

Castellio,  Sebastian,  172,  173 

Castelnau,  206 

Castel  deir  Uovo,  17 

Castel  Nuovo,  17,  19 

Castille,  65 

Castres,  195,  196,  200-202,  216,  242,  379 

Cateau-Cambresis,  Peace  of,  134,  151, 
152,  180,  208 

Catherine  de'  Medici,  Queen,  9 ;  be- 
trothal to  Henry  of  France,  77  ; 
quoted,  95  ;  her  Courts,  120  ;  appear- 
ance and  character,  121-124 ;  her 
children,  124 ;  quoted,  125 ;  her 
jealousy  of  Diane  de  Poitiers,  126,  127, 
129  ;  quoted,  127  ;  Regency  of,  137, 
148  ;  her  grief  at  the  death  of  Henry 
II,  154  ;  her  attitude  as  Queen 
Mother,  176,  177,  178  ;  appealed  to 
by  the  peace  party,  186  ;  her  negotia- 
tions with  the  Bourbons,  188,  192  ;  her 
policy  of  conciliation,  193-195,  197- 
199  ;  at  the  Colloquy  of  Poissy,  200  ; 
second  Regency  of,  192-207,  211-218  ; 
makes  peace  with  the  Huguenots,  222  ; 
arranges  marriage  of  Charles  IX,  and 
of  the  Princess  Margaret,  223,  224 ; 
her  hostility  to  Coligny,  225-227; 
visits  the  wounded  Coligny,  228 ; 
her  part  in  the  Massacre  of  St.  Bar- 
tholomew, 230,  231,  235,  237;  negotiates 
election  of  Duke  of  Anjou  to  throne  of 
Poland.  238  ;  at  death- bed  of  Charles 
IX,  239  ;  her  attitude  to  Calvinism, 
241  ;  third  Regency  of,  245 ;  her 
opposition  to  Henry  Ill's  marriage,  246 ; 
her  influence  at  the  Court  of  Henry  III, 
247 ;  her  progress  to  Nerac,  253 ; 
effects  reconciliation  between  her  sons, 
255 ;  treats  with  the  League,  259, 
262  ;    intervenes  between  Henry  III 


2d 


417 


INDEX 


and  Guise,  266,  268,  269 ;  her  terror 
at  the  murder  of  Guise,  278 ;  her 
death,  284 ;  mentioned,  291  ;  the 
luxury  and  elegance  of  her  Court,  329, 
330,  332,  333  ;  her  collections,  334  ; 
mentioned,  339  ;  orders  the  building 
of  the  Tuileries,  352,  355,  356; 
patroness  of  Philibert  Delorme,  355- 
357  ;  and  of  Germain  Pilon,  359  ;  her 
tapestries,  361,  362 ;  patroness  of 
musicians,  363 
Cauvin,  Charles,  168 

Gerard,  168 
Cavagnes  (Huguenot),  238 
Cavalli,  Marino,  84,  85,  127,  134 
Cayet,  Palma,  288,  367 
Caylus  ("  minion  "),  257 
Cecil,  see  Burleigh 
Cellini,  Benvenuto,  96,  113,  116 
Cercamps,  Abbey  of,  150 
Cerceau,  Baptiste  Androuet  du,  353,  359 
Jacques  Androuet  du,  110,  113,  350 
Cerdagne,  13 
Cerignola,  Battle  of.  30 
Cerisola,  Battle  of,  8 
Chalons,  137,  388 
Chambiges,  Pierre,  113,  114 
Chambord,  Chateau,  111,  112 
Chamhre  ardente,  163 
Champagne,  4,  58,  135,  152,  203,  375,  399 

Mme.  de,  163 
Champlain,  319 
Chantelle  (fortress),  58 
Chantilly,  133 
Chantonnay,  197,  206 
Charenton,  351 

Charite-sur-Loire,  La,  222,  235,  262,  263 
Charlemagne,  48 

Charles  V,  Emperor,  candidature  for 
Imperial  throne,  48  ;  appearance  and 
character,  49 ;  elected  Emperor  of 
Germany,  51  ; .  quarrel  with  Francis  I, 
52  ;  attacked'  by  Francis  I  in  Spain, 
54 ;  counter-attack  by  the  Emperor, 
55 ;  makes  a  compact  with  Henry 
VIII  of  England,  58  ;  joined  by  the 
Constable  de  Bourbon,  69  ;  gains  the 
Battle  of  Pavia,  60,  61  ;  imposes  harsh 
conditions  on  Francis  I,  62-64 ; 
negotiates  with  Louise  of  Savoy,  65, 
06 ;  visits  Francis  in  his  prison  at 
Madrid,  67 ;  receives  Margaret  of 
Navarre,  68  ;  makes  the  Treaty  of 
Madrid,  69,  70  ;  releases  Francis,  71  ; 
sends  Lannoy  to  France,  72 ;  his 
harshness  to  the  little  captive  princes, 
73  ;  gives  command  to  Constable  de 
Bourbon,  74  ;  causes  the  Pope  to  be 
imprisoned,  74 ;  agrees  to  Peace  of 
Cambray,     76,     77  ;      the     Lutheran 

418 


princes    combine    against    him,     78 ; 
invades     Provence,     79 ;      concludes 
Peace    of    Crepy,    81  ;     his    visit    to 
France,   80,   114,   352  ;    rupture  with 
Henry  II  of  France,  135  ;  crushes  the 
Lutheran  princes  at  Miihlberg,    136  ; 
war  with  Henry  II,  137-142  ;   abdica- 
tion,  142-144  ;    his  comment  on  the 
character  of  the  French,  408 
Charles  V,  King,  21 
Charles  VI,  King,  370 
Charles  VII,  King,  22,  47,  108,  398 
Charles  VIII,  birth  and  minority,  1-3  ; 
projected  abduction  of,  5  ;    majority 
and  marriage  of,   7  ;    his  designs  on 
Constantinople,    10 ;     undertakes    the 
expedition    against    Naples,    12,    13  ; 
takes  possession  of  Naples,   17  ;    de- 
feated at  Fornovo  and  driven  from 
Italy,    18,    19 ;     death,    20,    21  ;     his 
claim  to  Naples,  28  ;    mentioned,  39, 
375 ;      children     of,     20 ;      tomb     of 
children  of,  109. 
Charles  IX,  mentioned,  95,  124  ;   acces- 
sion, 191  ;   appearance  and  character, 
191,   192  ;    mentioned,  194 ;    presides 
at  the  Colloquy  of  Poissy,  200  ;   takes 
Rouen    from    the    Huguenots,     208  ; 
his    majority    proclaimed,    212 ;     his 
attitude  at  the  Conference  of  Bayonne, 
215 ;       his     exasperation     with     the 
Huguenots,  217-219  ;   agrees  to  Peace 
of  Saint-Germain,  222  ;    his  marriage 
with  Elizabeth  of  Austria,  223  ;    re- 
conciliation  with   Coligny,    224,    225, 
227  ;    his  anger  at  the  first  attack  on 
Coligny,    228-229  ;     mentioned,    230  ; 
his  reluctant  consent  to  the  Massacre 
of  St.  Bartholomew,  231  ;   mentioned, 
232,  233  ;   his  attempts  to  put  an  end 
to     the     Massacre,     234 ;      execrated 
throughout    Europe,    236,    237 ;     his 
remorse   and   premature   death,    237- 
239,    245 ;     his  literary   tastes,    328  ; 
mentioned,  329,  330,  346  ;    his  share 
in   the   construction   of   the   Louvre, 
353,  354  ;    patron  of  Germain  Pilon, 
359  ;  mentioned,  361,  363 
Charles  X,  see  Bourbon,  Cardinal  de 
Charles  Orland,  Prince,  20 

Prince,  son  of  Francis  I,  90 
Charleval,  Chateau  of,  351 
Charlotte,  Queen  of  Louis  XI,  2,  11 
Chartres,  208,  245,  270,  271,  279,  306 

Vidame  de.  139,  176 
Chataigneraie,  M.  de  la,  120 
Chateaubriant,  Edict  of,  163 

Mme.  de,  88,  89,  94,  101,  126 
Sire  de,  89 
Chateau-Renaud,  183 


INDEX 


Chateau-Thierry,  255 

Chateauvieu,  M.  de,  286 

Chatel,  Jean,  309 

Chatelet,  the,  100,  397 

Chatellerault,  80 

Chatillon,  Cardinal  Odet  de,  131,  164 

family,  176,  178,  179,  182,  186,  192, 
204,  216,  220,  229,  294 

Gaspard  de,  131 
Chatillon-sux-Seine,  262 
Chaumont,  see  d'Amboise,  Chaumont 
Chenonceaux,  Chateau,  129,  244,  352 
Chevalier,  Etienne.  108 
Cheverny,  M.  de,  259,  324 
Chivasso,  151 
Cistercians,  404 
Civita  Vecchia,  17 
Clares  (nuns),  404 
Classicism,  337-339 

Claude,  Princess,  27,  32,  33,  37,  39,  41  ; 
see  also  Claude,  Queen 

Queen,  45,  53,  66,  88,  90,  94,   110, 
111 
Clement  VII,  Pope,  66.  72,  73-75,  77 

VIII,  Pope,  305,  310,  311 
Clement,  Jacques,  282,  283 
Clergy,  the,  402 
Clery,  205,  245 
Clinet,  M.,  113 
Clouet  family,  114 

FrauQois,  239,  360,  361 

Jean,  83,  360 
Coconas,  M.  de,  238 
Cognac,  72,  262,  319 

Coiigny,  Admiral  Gaspard  de,  131,  137, 
143,  146,  147,  164,  165,  176,  187,  204, 
208,  211,  212,  216,  217,  221,  224,  225- 
233,  235,  237,  248,  400 
College  de  Cambray,  106 

de  la  Fleche,  320 

de  France,  101,  106,  347 

de  la  Marche,  168 

de  Montaigne,  168 

de  Navarre,  347 

du  Plessis,  162 
Cologne,  Archbishop  of,  48,  50,  51 
Colombe,  Michel,  109,  116  ;    his  George 
and  the  Dragon,  109  ;  tomb  of  Francis 
II  of  Brittany,  109 
Colonna  family,  74 

Prospero,  55,  59 
Comines,  Philippe  de,  quoted,  12,  13,  15, 

19,  20,  21 
Comminges,  Comte  de,  6 
Como,  20 

Compiegne,  59,  148 
Comtat-Venaissin,  366 
Concordat  of  Bologna,  92 
Conde,  Prince  of,  139,  105,  176,  179,  185, 
187-189,  197,  204-209,  211,  212, 


216,  219-221,  227,  237,  246-248, 

253,  261,  310,  325 
Conde,   Princess   of,   see    Montmorency, 

Charlotte  de 
Constantinople,  10,  78,  105,  152 
Contarini,  Lorenzo,  130 

Zaccaria,  8 
Conti.,  294 

Coquoau,  Jacques,  112 
Cordova,  Gonzalo  de,  29,  30 
Cornaton,  232 
Corneille  de  Lyon,  301 
Correro,  194 

Cortona,  Domenico  da,  see  Boccador 
Cosse,  Rene  de,  94 
Costeley,  364 

Councils,  State,  372,  373,  377,  378 
Courteys,  the,  362 
Cousin,  Jean,  360 
Coutras,  Battle  of,  262,  203 
Coxcie,  Michael,  363 
Cracow,  245 
Cremona,  27,  34 
Crepy-en-Valois,  Peace  of,  81 
Crillon,  268,  274 
Cujas,  Jacques,  341 

Daim,  Olivier  le,  3 

Dallington,  Sir  Robert,  412 

Damville,  Marshal  de,  219 

Dandolo,  118 

Dauphiny,  4,  62,  79,  187,  206,  213,  254, 

291,  306,  313,  375 
Daurat  (poet),  343 
Davila,  367 
Delorme,  Philibert,  129,  349,  350,  355, 

356,  358 
Denmark,  345 
Deville,  M.,  109 
Dieppe,  289 

Dijon,  213,  258,  378,  390 
Dinan, 312 

Dohna,  Baron  von,  262 
Dol,  Bishop  of,  107 
Dolet,  Etienne,  103 
Doria,  Andrea,  76 
Dormans,  Battle  of,  247 
Drawings,  chalk,  114,  361 
Dreux,  246,  292  ;   Battle  of,  209 
Dufaur,  Louis,  167 
Dunois,  3-6 

Duprat,  Antoine,  45,  63,  72 
Dupuy,  Claude,  243 

East  Ixdia  Compaxy,  French,  319 

Ecole  des  Beaux  Arts,  356 

iScouon,  133  ;  Chateau  of,  351,  352,  357, 

358,  363 
Edict  Chamber,  321,  379 
Edicts,  see  under  Blois,  Nantes,  Poitiers,  &c. 

419 


INDEX 


Edward  VI  of  England,  135 

Egmont,  Count,  146 

Egypt,  105 

Eidgenossen,  170  ;  see  also  Huguenots 

d'Elbeuf,  Rene,  Marquis,  132,  139,  259, 

278 
Electors  of  German  Empire,  48,  50,  51 
Eleonora  of  Portugal,  66,  68,  69,  70 

of  Toledo,  57,  88 
Elizabeth  of  Austria,  Queen  of  Charles 
IX,  223 
Queen  of  England,   150,  207,   208, 

210,  223,  235,  236,  238,  254 
of  Valois,  Queen  of  Spain,  123,  124, 
151,  198,  213,  214 
Embrun,  Archbishop  of,  65,  67,  69,  70 
Enamels,  362,  363 
d'Enghien,  Due,  81,  139,  147 
England,  33,  323,  345,  368,  375 
d'Entraigues,    Henriette,    see    Verneuil, 
Marquise  de 
Madame,  see  Graville,  Anne  de 
M.,  286 

Pierre  de  Balzac,  88 
I'Elpargne  (Savings  Bank),  388,  392,  393 
Epernay,  259 
d'fipernon,  Due,  258,  267,  271,  280,  287, 

404 
d'Epinae,  Archbishop  of  Lyons,  273,  277, 

278,  280,  301 
Erasmus,  104,  106 
Ernest,  Arch-Duke,  303 
Erpenius,  367 

d'Esquerdes,  Marquis,  see  Baudricourt 
d'Este,  Anne,  132 
Estienne,  Henri,  339,  340 
Robert,  104,  105,  339 
Estoile,  quoted,  253,  254,  260,  264,  302, 

308,  309 
d'Estrees,  Gabrielle,  304,  322,  323,  409 
d'lStampes,  Duchesse,  89,  90,  122 
Staples,  Treaty  of,  13 
"  Evangelicals,  the,"  171 
Evreux,  5 
Exchequer  Court,  394 

Faenza,  34 

Eail,  Noel  du,  346,  409 

Falaise,  290 

Farel,  Guillaume,  157,  170 

Farnese,  Alessandro,  Prince  of  Parma, 

254,  294-296,  298 
Faurin,  Jean,  his  Diary,  195,  196,  200, 

201,  205,  242 
Fecamp,  Abbot  of,  107 
Ferdinand  of  Aragon,  30,  48,  52 

Arch-Duke,  139 

Emperor,  143,  144,  151 
Fere,  La.  253,  254 
Feria,  Duke  of,  301,  307 

420 


Ferrante,  King  of  Naples,  12-14,  17 
II,  King  of  Naples.  19 

Ferrara,  52 

Reuee,  Duchess  of,  132,  133,  219 

Ferrier,  du,  166,  167,  230 

Ferrieres,  Jean  de,  207,  208 

Fervaques,  290 

Field  of  the  Cloth  of  Gold,  52-54 

Figon,  Charles  de,  372,  401 

Finance,  374 

Fine,  Oronce,  106 

Flanders.  48,  63,  66,  68,  76,  80,  135,  161, 
361,  375 

Fleix,  Peace  of,  254 

Florence,  8,  13,  15,  16,  18,  20,  66,  323, 
401 

Foix.  Andre  de,  54,  55,  88 

Fran9oise    de,    see    Chateaubriant, 

Mme.  de 
Gaston  de,  36 
Odet  de,  see  Lautrec 

Folembray,  Chateau,  351  ;  Treaty  of, 
311 

Fontainebleau,  105,  113-116,  186,  197, 
204,  323,  324,  331;  Cour  du  Cheval 
Blanc  at,  114  ;  Galerie  de  Fran9ois  I 
at,  114;  School  of,  116;  tapestry 
factory  at,  362 

Fontaine-Frangaise,  Battle  of,  310 

Fontarabia,  71 

Forbin,  Claude  de,  37 

Force,  Caumont  La,  231,  233 
Marquis  de  la,  260 

Forest,  La,  78 

Forge,  Etienne  de  la,  169 

Forli,  27 

Fornovo,  Battle  of,  18,  19 

Fougeres,  6 

Fouquet,  Jean,  108 

Franche-Comte,  14,  324,  364,  366 

Francis  I,  mentioned,  31  ;  accession,  43, 
44  ;  appearance  and  character,  43^5  ; 
claims  the  Duchy  of  Milan,  45 ; 
gains  the  victory  of  Marignano,  46 ; 
negotiates  with  Leo  X,  47  ;  becomes 
a  candidate  for  the  Imperial  throne, 
48  ;  contrasted  with  Charles  V,  49  ; 
bribes  the  German  Electors,  50,  51  ; 
meets  Henry  VIII  of  England  at 
Ardres,  52-54 ;  makes  war  upon 
Charles  V,  54-56 ;  his  second 
Ita-lian  campaign,  59-62  ;  defeated  at 
Pavia,  61  ;  a  prisoner  at  Pizzighet- 
tone,  62-64  ;  and  at  Madrid,  65-71  ; 
returns  to  France,  71  ;  joins  the 
League  of  Cognac,  73  ;  challenges  the 
Emperor,  75 ;  signs  the  Peace  of 
Cambray,  77 ;  renews  his  claim  to 
Milan,  77-79  ;  agrees  to  a  truce  with 
the  Emperor,  80  ;    renews  the  war  in      j 


INDEX 


Italy,  81 ;  his  death  at  53,  81 ; 
the  King  and  the  man,  83,  84  ;  his 
mother,  Louise  of  Savoy,  86 ;  his 
sister,  Margaret  of  Navarre,  87,  88  ; 
his  Queens,  Claude  and  EMonore,  88  ; 
his  mistresses,  88-90 ;  his  children, 
90  ;  Court  life  under,  91-98  ;  financial 
disorder  under,  98-100  ;  his  patronage 
of  art  and  letters,  101-103,  104-116  ; 
mentioned,  118;  his  coolness  to  his 
heir,  119  ;  mentioned,  121  ;  his  con- 
sideration for  Catherine  de'  Medici, 
124 ;  mentioned,  131  ;  his  inter- 
vention on  behalf  of  Berquin,  156, 
158  ;  his  attitude  to  Protestantism, 
158-162;  mentioned,  164,  177,  186, 
329,  330  ;  rebuilds  the  Louvre,  352  ; 
mentioned,  362,  375,  398  ;  tomb  of, 
356,  360 

Francis  II,  as  Dauphin,  124  ;  marriage 
to  Mary  Stuart,  125;  accession,  175; 
his  hostility  to  the  Bourbons,  176 ; 
and  to  the  Huguenots,  188  ;  his  early 
death,  189,  190  ;  mentioned,  191,  192, 
194 ;  repressive  policy  of,  217 ; 
mentioned,  361 

Francis,  Prince,  son  of  Francis  I,  90 

Frankfort,  48,  51 

Frederick  III,  Emperor,  7 
of  Naples,  14,  29 

Fregose,  81 

Fresnaye,  Vauquelin  de  la,  345 

Friedwald,  Convention  of,  137 

Fronde,  the,  256 

Frontignan,  367 

Fuentes,  Count  of,  310 

Fumee,  Antoine,  166,  167 

Gadier,  Pierre,  113 

Gaguin,  20 

Gail,  J.  B.,  121 

Gaillac,  367 

Galerie  d'Apollon,  Louvre,  334,  354,  362 

Galland,  106 

Gaillon,  Chateau,  38,  109 

Garde,  Baron  de  la,  see  Paulin 

Garigliano,  Bridge  of,  31 

Gascony,  62 

Gattinara,  62,  70 

Gaveron,  Mme.  de,  163 

Geneva,  169-174,  196,  198,  236,  250,  339 

Genevra,  Col  di,  14 

Genoa,  13,  107 

Genouillac,  Galiot  dc,  61,  93,  116 

Gentilly,  208 

German  Empire,  48 

Germany,  135,  136,  139,  218,  282,  343, 

347,  368,  375 
G6vandon,  368 
Gex,  313 


Ghent,  255,  361 ;  insurrection  of,  80 

Ghiara  d'Adda,  34 

Gie,  Marshal  de,  17,  23,  31,  32,  38 

Gien,  262 

Gille,  Pierre,  106 

Giustiniano,  49,  77,  86,  161 

Givet,  Siege  of,  146 

Givry,  Baron,  287 

Crlass,  stained,  363 

Golden  Bull,  139 

Golnitz,  Abraham,  367 

Gondi,  Cardinal,  230,  299,  310 
M.  de,  383,  386 

Gonzaga,  Francesco  di,  18 

Gouberville,  Sieur  de,  406,  407,  409,  410 

Goudimel,  364 

Gouffier,  Arthur  de,  45 

Goujon,  Jean,  358,  359 ;  his  Caryatides, 
358 ;  his  Diana,  358 ;  his  Fountain 
of  the  Innocents,  358  ;  his  sculptures 
on  the  fa9ade  of  the  Louvre,  358 

Grammont,  216,  257 

Granada,  Treaty  of,  28,  29 

Granvelle,  Spanish  ambassador,  75,  150, 
214 

Gravelines,  54,  150 

Gravelles,  M.  de,^163 

Graves,  367 

Graville,  Admiral  de,  23 
Anne  de,  88 

Greece,  10,  351 

Gregory  XIII,  Pope,  236 

Grenoble,  156,  378,  388 

Greve,  Place  de,  156,  162,  211,  267 

Grossier,  Jean,  112 

Guasto,  del.  General,  81 

Guercheville,  Mme.  de,  409 

Guerin,  Guillaume,  162 

Guesle,  M.  la,  283 

Guiche,  Comtesse  de,  263 

Guillain,  Guillaume,  113 

Guillert,  President,  51 

Guinegate,  37 

Guipazcoa,  54 

Guisards,  the,  273 

Guise,  Cardinal  Louis  de,  132 
Cardinal,  215,  273,  278,  280 
Duchess  of,  213 

Guise  family,  131-133,  135,  175-177, 
181,  185,  187,  189,  192,  197,  212,  216, 
225,  228,  229,  231,  246,  249,  258,  259, 
262,  265,  271,  279,  291,  334 

Guise,  Francis,  Duke  of,  friendship  with 
Henry  II,  131,  132  ;  character,  132  ; 
marriage,  132  ;  a  member  of  Henry 
II's  Council,  133  ;  commands  the  army 
sent  against  the  Emperor,  137-141  ; 
successfully  defends  Metz,  140,  141  ; 
leads  an  expedition  into  Italy,  145  ; 
returns    to    take    chief   command   in 

421 


INDEX 


France,  147,  148  ;  takes  Calais  from 
the  English,  149,  150 ;  mentioned, 
153  ;  his  predominance  at  the  acces- 
sion of  Francis  II,  175  ;  his  irritation 
against  Coligny,  187 ;  his  attitvide 
at  the  death  of  Francis  II,  190 ; 
forms  a  triumvirate  against  the 
Huguenots,  197 ;  his  share  in  the 
Massacre  of  Vassy,  203  ;  acclaimed  by 
the  Parisians,  204  ;  assassination,  209- 
211  ;  mentioned,  225 

Guise,  Francis  of,  the  younger,  132 

Guise,  Henry,  Duke  of,  succeeds  his 
father,  Francis,  225 ;  retires  from 
Court,  229 ;  leads  in  the  Massacre  of 
St.  Bartholomew,  232,  233 ;  chosen 
head  of  the  League,  249  ;  suggested 
as  successor  to  Henry  III,  256 ; 
occupies  Chalons  for  the  League,  258  ; 
his  growing  arrogance,  259  ;  his  pre- 
parations for  civil  war,  261  ;  gains 
the  battles  of  Vimory  and  Auneau, 
263  ;  openly  braves  Henry  III,  264- 
269  ;  occupies  Paris,  270  ;  appointed 
Generalissimo,  271  ;  controls  the  de- 
liberations of  the  States  General,  272, 
273  ;  the  King  plots  his  assassination, 
274-276  ;  murder  of,  277,  278 

Guise,  Duke  of,  successor  of  the  above, 
303 

Guise,  Mary  of;  aee  Mary,  Queen  of 
Scotland 

Guyenne,  62,  79,  254,  375 

Hagenatj,  138 

Hainault,  142 

Halde,  du,  275 

Ham,  150 

Haquelebao's  Gallery,  Amboise,  20 

Karlai,  M.,  159,  160 

Harlay,  President  de.  279 

Haton,  Claude,  199,  200 

Havre,  le,  208,  212 

Haye.  La  (envoy),  207,  208 

d'Heilly,  Mile.,  64, 101  ;  see  also  ]fitampes 

Heliodorus,  340 

Hendaye,  71 

Hennequin,  Pierre,  249 

Henry  II,  as  Dauphin,  71,  73,  77,  90  ; 
mentioned,  115  ;  accession,  118  ;  char- 
acter, 118,119-121,  133,  134;  maniage 
with  Catherine  de'  Medici,  77,  121- 
124 ;  his  liaison  with  Diane  de 
Poitiers,  119,  125-129,  131  ;  his 
advisers,  130,  131,  133 ;  his  policy, 
134;  his  hatred  of  Charles  V,  135; 
makes  a  treaty  with  the  German 
princes,  137 ;  wars  against  the 
Emperor,  137-142  ;  takes  the  initia- 
tive after  the  disaster  at  St.  Quentin, 

422 


148  ;  makes  peace  and  agrees  to 
Treaty  of  Cateau-Cambresis,  150-152  ; 
wounded  by  Montgommery  in  a  tourna- 
ment, 153  ;  dies  ten  days  later,  154  ; 
his  repressive  policy  to  the  Huguenots, 
167,  177,  217,  220;  his  forebodings 
in  this  connection,  175  ;  mentioned, 
224,  243,  301,  328,  329,  340,  342,  349  ; 
his  share  in  the  construction  of  the 
Louvre,  353 ;  patronises  Philibert 
Delorme,  355  ;  and  Jean  BuUant,  357  ; 
tomb  of,  359  ;  his  portraits  by  Clouet, 
361  ;  establishes  tapestry  factory  in 
Paris,  362  ;  his  secretaries  of  State,  375 

Henry  III,  as  Duke  of  Anjou,  124 ; 
gains  the  victory  of  Jarnac,  220,  221, 
elected  King  of  Poland,  238  ;  acces- 
sion, 245  ;  chai-acter,  243-245  ;  mar- 
riage, 246 ;  his  financial  embarrass- 
ments, 247,  248 ;  his  opposition  to 
the  League,  249 ;  presides  at  the 
meeting  of  the  States-General,  259  ; 
signs  the  Peace  of  Bergerac,  251  ; 
difficulties  with  his  brother,  the  Duke 
of  Anjou,  252  ;  the  question  of  his 
successor,  255 ;  his  unpopularity, 
257 ;  his  "  minions,"  257,  258  ; 
forced  to  give  way  to  the  League, 
259  ;  makes  war  upon  the  Huguenots, 
261  ;  his  forces  defeated  at  Coutras, 
262,  263  ;  creates  the  Order  of  the 
Holy  Ghost,  264 ;  his  irritation  at 
the  growing  power  of  Guise,  264-267  ; 
hostility  of  the  populace  and  flight  of 
the  King  from  Paris,  268-270  ;  treats 
with  the  League,  271  ;  presides  at  the 
States-General,  272  ;  determines  to 
have  Guise  assassinated,  273 ;  his 
part  in  the  murder,  275,  276,  278  ; 
execrated  by  the  nation,  278,  279 ; 
his  despair,  280  ;  he  comes  to  terms 
with  Henry  of  Navarre,  280,  281  ; 
marches  on  Paris,  282  ;  assassinated 
by  Jacques  Clement,  282-284  ;  men- 
tioned, 291,  312  ;  as  patron  of  litera- 
ture, 328,  346 ;  his  insistence  on 
Court  ceremonial,  330,  331  ;  men- 
tioned, 347  ;  his  ministerial  system, 
375 

Henry  IV,  mentioned,  56,  81,  85,  127, 
131  ;  accession,  286,  287  ;  character, 
287 ;  provisional  recognition  by 
Catholics,  288  ;  hostility  of  the  League, 
289 ;  he  opens  his  campaign  against 
Mayenne,  289  ;  gains  Battle  of  Arques, 
289  ;  and  Battle  of  Ivry,  292  ;  be- 
sieges Paris,  293-295  ;  seizes  Chartres, 
296 ;  his  recantation  urged,  299 ; 
conferences  on  this  point  at  Suresnes, 
301-303;    his  recantation,  304,  305; 


INDEX 


coronation  at  Chartres,  306,  307 ; 
Paris  surrenders  to  him,  307  ;  Chatel 
attempts  to  murder  him,  309 ;  he 
drives  out  the  Spaniards,  310-312  ; 
makes  peace  with  the  Leaguers,  311  ; 
sets  his  kingdom  in  order,  313-319  ; 
encourages  colonisation,  319  ;  grants 
the  Edict  of  Nantes,  320,  321  ;  his 
first  marriage  annulled,  marries  Marie 
de'  Medici,  322,  323  ;  his  mistresses, 
322,  323  ;  plans  a  campaign  against 
Gtermany,  325 ;  assassinated  by 
Ravaillac,  326 ;  his  dislike  of  cere- 
monial, 331  ;  mentioned,  341  ;  men- 
tioned, 366,  368,  383,  399,  401,  404, 
406 ;  manners  and  morals  under, 
408,  409  ;  see  also  Beam,  Henry  of, 
and  Navarre,  King  Henry  of. 

Henry  VIII  of  England,  37,  38,  41,  52, 
53-55,  58,  60,  62-64,  66,  72,  78,  81, 
150 

He'ptameron,  the,  102,  103 

Heroard.  Jean,  409 

Hesdin,  141 

Holy  League  of  Cognac,  73,  74 

Honfleur,  291 

I'Hopital,  Michel  de,  186,  181&,  194,  198, 
199,  201,  215,  216,  219,  220 

Hotel  de  ViUe,  Paris,  113,  231,  260,  278, 
297 

Hotman,  Francis,  236,  341 

Hubert,  Thomas,  85 

Hugo,  Victor.  125 

Huguenots,  170,  192,  194-196,  198,  209  ; 
origin  of  term,  170  ;  their  uniform,  209 

d'Humieres,  Mme.,  124 

Hundred  Years  War,  206 

Hutten,  Ulrich  von,  50 

d'If,  Chateau,  317 
Ile-de-France,  311 
lUescas,  Castle  of,  71 
Imola,  27,  34 
Innsbruck,  26,  139 
Isabella  of  Castille,  48 

Clara   Eugenia,  Infanta,     301,    302, 
345 
Ischia,  17 
Isle-Adam,  133 
Isle  of  Wight  raided,  81 
Italian  influences  in  France,   107,   108, 

110,  113,  114 
Italy,  11,  33,  55,  56,  58,  59.  63-68,  72- 

74,   76,   79.   107,   134,   151,   152,  343, 

344,  347 
Ivry,  Battle  of,  292,  300,  345 

James  V  of  Scotland,  132 
James,  Thomas,  see  Dol 
Janet,  see  Clouet 


Jarnac,  Battle  of,  220,  221,  226 

M.  de,  120 
Jeanne,  Queen  of  Louis  XII,  24 
Jeannin,  297,  301 
Jesuits,  242,  309,  320,  340,  404 
Joanna  the  Mad,  48 
Jodolle,  343 

John  the  Good,  King,  69,  83 
Joinville,  Chateau  de,  334 

Treaty  of,  256 
Joubert,  Guillaume,  156 
Joyeuse,  Duke  of,  257,  258,  262,   263, 

311,  364  ;   see  also  d'Arques 
Juan,  Don,  7,  252 
Juana,  Queen  of  Naples,  10 
Juliers,  Duke  William  of,  325 
Julius  II,  Pope,  30,  33,  34-37,  157 
Jupiter  Stator,  Temple  of,  357 
Justice,  Administration  of,  374 
Justinian,  342 

Knights  of  Malta,  401 

Labe,  Louise,  339,  343 

"  Ladies  Peace,"  see  Cambray,  Peace  of 

Laiiemas,  Barthelemy  de,  318 

Lallemand,  Jean,  69 

Landriano,  296 

Langeais,  Chateau  de,  7 

Jean, 113 
Langlois,  Sheriff,  307 
Languedoc,  45,  56,  62,  79,  99,  187,  197, 

213,  248,  311,  319,  368,  375 
Langue  d'o'il,  99 
Languet,  Hubert,  178,  206 
Lannoy,  Viceroy  of  ZSTaples,  60,  61,  64, 

65,  67,  69,  72 
Laon, 294 

Larchant,  M.  de,  275 
Larcher  (counsellor),  297 
Largentiere,  Pass  of,  46 
Lassus,  Orlando  de,  364 
Laurana,  Francesco,  108 
Lautrec,  45,  55,  71,  75,  70,  98,  99 
Laval,  348 

Jean  de,  see  Chateaubriant 
Lawyers,  385 
League,  the,   248,   249,   250,   251,   253, 

256-261,  267,  270,  271,  279,  280,  288- 

292,  295,  299,  301,  302,  305-309 
Lefevre  of  litaples,  104,  105 

Jacques,  157,  158 
Legions,  the  seven,  79 
Leiva,  Antonio  de,  64 
Leo  X,  Pope,  37,  38,  47,  52,  55,  155 
Lescot,  Pierre,  352-359 
Lesdiguieres,  254 
Lesparre,  see  Foix,  A.  de 
Levant,  the,  375 
LhuiUier,  Provost,  307 

423 


INDEX 


"  Libertines,"  the,  170,  171 

Libourne,  347 

Lignerolles,  Mme.  de,  346 

Limeuil,  Mile,  de,  212 

Limoges,  388  ;  Bishop  of,  193,  213 

Limousin,  the,  262 

Leonard,  123.  362,  363 
Lippomano,  242,  332,  408 
Lit  de  Justice,  234  and  note,  384 
Livarot,  257 
Loches,  28,  289 
Loignac,  274-276 
Loire,  1,  184,  263 
Longchamp,  113 
Longjumeau,  Peace  of,  219,  220 
Longueville,  Duke  of,  147,  287,  290 
Longus,  340 
Lorges,  M,  de,  153 
Lorraine,  6,  81,  213,  366 
I  ^  K         Cardinal  de,  l^,  132,  150,  159,  164, 
165,  175,  177,  180,  187,  190,  197, 
199,  200,  237 
Claude,  Duchess  of,  124 
Duke  of,  291 
House  of,  308 
Rene,  Duke  of,  3,  11,  131 
Philippe  Emmanuel  of,  see  Mercoeur, 
Duke  of 
Lostau,  M.  de,  196 
Louis  VII,  114 
Louis  XI,  1-3,  7,  10,  11,  21,  22,  24,  52, 

63,  108,  205,  264,  389,  398 
Louis  XII,  20,  21,  22,  25,  32,  110,  115, 

351,  375,  384,  399 
Louis  XIIL  256,  291,  323,  331,  3G8,  375, 

391,  399,  400,  405,  409 
Louis  XIV,  84,  91,  101,  243,  321,  331, 

338,  370 
Louis  XVI,  91 
Louis  Philippe,  115 

Louise,  Princess,  daughter  of  Francis  I, 
90 
of   Savoy,   Queen,   31,   44,   53,    57, 
62-64,  66,  67,  69,  71,  76,  86,  87, 
89,  90,  98-100 
de  Vaudemont,  Queen  of  Henry  III, 
246,  257,  258,  275,  312 
Louvre,  the,  80,  94,  112,  153,  160,  204, 
227-232,  266,  268,  269,  298,  307,  326, 
358  ;  rebuilding  of,  352-355 
Loyola,  Ignatius,  54,  242 
Lucca,  15 

Luther,  Martin,  155,  158,  167 
Lutheranism,  73,  78,  155,  156,  162-165, 

168 
Luxembourg,  Louis  de,  26 
Lyons,  28,  58,  60,  63,  107,  213,  235,  265, 

2S0,  306,  323,  339,  343,  375,  388 
Lys-Saint-Georges,  28 

424 


Machiaveli  I,  264 

Madeleine,  Princess,  daughter  of  Francis 

L90 
Madrid,  62,  65,  67,  71,  72,  77.  80,  84, 
112,    153;     Chateau    de,    113.    354; 
Treaty  of,  69,  70,  73 
"  Mad  War,"  the,  5,  6 
Magistrature,  376,  379 
Maillart,  100 
Main  de  Justice,  307 
Maine,  10,  45,  62 

Charles,   Comte  du,    10  ;    tomb  of, 
108 
Mainz,  Archbishop  of,  48,  50,  51 
Maisonfleur,  213 
Maistre,  President  Le,  303 
Mans.  Le,  279,  290 
Mansfeld,  Count  of,  300,  306 
Mantes,  293 
Mantua,  Marquis  of,  35 
Manzanares,  the,  65,  71 
Margaret,  Archduchess,  76 

daughter    of    the    Archduke  Maxi- 
milian, 7,  14 
Princess,  daughter  of  Francis  I,  90, 

151 
Duchess  of  Parma,  206 
Queen  of  Navarre,  sister  of  Francis  I, 
44,  45,  49,  53,  67,  68,  86,  87,  89, 
94,  102,  157,  158,  165,  335 
Queen    of    Navarre,     daughter    of 
Henry  II,  123,  124,  223,  224,  225, 
236  253 
of  Va'lois,  290,  310,  322-324,  337  ; 
see     also     Margaret,     Queen     of 
Navarre 
Margot,  La  Reine,  see  Margaret,  Queen 

of  Navarre,  daughter  of  Henry  II 
Marie  de'  Medici,  Queen,  322-325,  401, 

409 
Marienburg,  151 
Marignano,   Battle   of,   46.   47,   60,   89, 

131,  352  ;  Marquis  of,  140 
Marini  (engineer),  140 
Marot,  Clement,  89,  93,  102,  158,   161, 
335,  364 
Jean,  40 
Marseilles,  60,  77,  79,  279,  317 
Marshals  of  France,  398 
Marshalsea,  396 
Mary  of  Cleves,  21 

of  Guise,   Queen  of  Scotland,   124, 

132,  133,  135 
Princess,  of  England,  41,  42 
Stuart,  123,  125,  132,  133,  135.  154, 

175,  176,  218 
Queen  of  England,  146,  150 
Masparault.  217 

Matignon,  M.  de,  58,  254,  279,  308 
Maubert,  Place,  97,  150,  160 


INDEX 


Maugiron  (•*  minion  "),  257 
Mauleon  ("  minion  "),  257 
Maurevert  (assassin  of  Coligny),  228 
Maximilian,  Arch-Duke,  7,  13,  14 

Emperor,  33,  35.  36,  38,  48-51,  236 
Mayenne,  Duke  of,  225,  254,  258,  261, 

280,  282,  288-295,  297-305 
Meaux,  187,  174,  204,  205,  218,  235,  295 
Medici,  Catherine  de',  see  Catherine  dc' 
Medici.  Queen 
Chapel,  Florence,  359 
Giovanni  de',  see  Leo  X 
Lorenzo  de',  77 
Piero  de',  13,  15,  16 
Marie  de',  see  Marie  de'  Medici,'Queen 
Mehun,  120 

Melancthon,  Philip,  158 
Melun,  340  ;   Chateau  de,  165,  204 
Mendoza,  291.  294,  303 
MerccEur,  Duke  of.  258,  259,  309,  312 
Mercoliano,  Pacello  di,  20 
Mercurials,  383 
Mere.  Poltrot  dc,  210,  211 
Merindol.  161 
Merlin,  232 
Meschinot.  Jean,  40 
Mesnil-au-Val,  406,  409 
Metz,  134,  137-139,  152,  366  ;   siege  of, 

140,  141 
Meudon,  287 
Mezieres,  55 

Michelangelo's  Leda,  115 
Micheiet,  quoted,  113 
Michiel,  Giovanni,  192,  225,  238.  332 
Milan,  15,  16,  25,  27,  33,  34,  36,  38,  45, 
52,  55,  60,  63,  64,  77.  79,  80.  81,  134, 
143,  151  ;   French  claim  to,  56 
Minard,  President,  178 
"  Minions  "  {Mignons),  257,  258 
Mint,  the,  395 
Miossens,  M.  de,  247 
Mirabello,  fortress  of,  01 
Mirandola,  35 
Moisset,  Jean  de,  317 
Mole,  Procurator- General,  279.  317 
Mole,  M.  de  la,  238 
Moncada,  Ugo  de,  69,  74 
MonQon,  Truce  of.  80 
Moncontour,  Battle  of,  221,  222,  226 
Mondoucet,  237,  252 
Monluc.  quoted,  81,  132,  133,  145,  152, 

105,  187,  206,  223,  399 
Monneins,  Governor,  130 
Monsieur,  Peace  of,  248,  249,  250 
Montaigne,  Michel  de,  339,  347 
Montargis,  5  ;  Church  of,  350 
Montbrun,  187 
Montceaux,  Chateau  de,  164,  203.  204, 

218,  220,  226,  227,  311,  399 
Montchenu,  90 


Mont-de-Marsan,  213 

Montesquiou,  M.  de,  221 

Montfaucon,  100,  237 

Montfery,  M.  de,  277 

Montgommery,  M.  de,  153,  187,  208, 231, 

233 
Montmorency,  Marshal  Anne  de,  45,  61, 
67,  69,  70,  79,  80,  90,  91,  92,  122, 
130,  131,  133,  135,  137,  141,  142, 
145,  146,  147,  150,  176,  192,  197, 
209,  211.  215,  219 

Charlotte  de,  325 

Constable  Anne  de,  352,  357 
Montpellier,  391 
Montpensier,  Count  of,  6 

Duchess  of,  265 

Duke  of,  18,  147,  198,  215,  216,  271 

family,  56 

Gilbert  de,  14,  16,  19 
Montrouge,  208 
Monts,  des,  319 
Monvillier,  248 
Moro,  II,  see  Sforza,  Ludovico 
Morosini,  243 
Mothe-Fenelon,  de  la,  235 
Moulin,  Charles  du,  341,  342 
Moulins,  Chateau  de,  56,  58,  216,  388 
Miihlberg,  Battle  of,  136 
Municipal  officers,  397 
Music,  363,  364 

Najera,  Duke  of,  54 

Nambu  (usher),  277 

Nancy,  138 

Nantes,  25,  31,  181,  390  ;    besieged,  7  ; 

Edict  of,  320,  321,  371 
Naples,  10.  12,  16-18,  20,  28-30,  52,  60, 

63,  64,  66,  76,  134,  143,  145,  151 
Nassau,  Count  of,  55,  136 

Ludovic,  Prince  of,  237 
Navarre,  52,  54,  257 
King  of,  6,  61 
Antoine,  King  of,  165,  176-179,  185, 

188,  197,  198,  207,  208,  209 
Henry,  King  of,  220,  246,  247,  252, 
261,  271,  272,  280-282,  284,  299, 
300,    302,    370,    371  ;     see    also 
Beam,  Henry  oif,  a7id  Henry  IV 
Margaret,  Queen  of,  see  Margaret 
Navy,  the,  400,  401 

Nemours,  Duke  of,  293,  295,  306;    see 
also  Foix,  Gaston  de 
Louis  de,  29 
M.  de,  139 
Treaty  of,  259,  260 
Nerac,  169,  216,  253,  254 
Nesle,  Hotel  dc,  359 
Netherlands,    143,    202,    203,    224-226, 

227,  229,  252,  254,  255 
Neuburg,  Count  of,  325 

425 


INDEX 


Neuville,  Nicolas  de,  92 

Nevers.  Count  of,  6,  147 

Duke  of,  230,  250,  258,  265,  294,  305 

Neveu,  Pierre,  112 

Nice,  366 

Niort,  222 

Nobilitv.  the.  404-4C6 

Normandy,  58,  62,  63,  79,  205,|208,  288, 
290,  358.  367,  368,  375,  403  ;  governor- 
ship of,  271 

Notables,  Assembly  of,  315,  316 

Notre  Dame,  Paris.  160,  227 

Noue,  La,  209,  405 

No  vara.  Battle  of,  27 

Noyon,  148,  168,  169 

D'O  ("  minion  "),  257,  268,  286 

Superintendent,  302,  307,  314 
Oiron,  120 

Olivier.  Chancellor,  177 
OUaim-ille,  246 
d'Oppede,  162 
d'Oraison,  Claude,  200.  201 
Orange,  Prince  of,   150,  226,  237,   253, 

254 
Order  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  264,  272 
Order  of  St.  Michael,  264 
Orleans,   169,   187,   188,  205,   209,   235, 
242,  265,  388,  412 

Charles  of,  21 

Louis,  Duke  of,  3-6,  14,  18,  21,  24  ; 
■see  also  Louis  XII 

Ordinance  of,  216 
d'Ornano.  274,  306 
d'Ossat,  310 
Ostia,  17 

Padtja,  34 

Painting,  360,  361 

Palatine,  Count,  48,  50,  51 

Palestrina,  364 

Palice,  Marshal  La,  36,  45,  46,  61 

Palissy,  Bernard,  348 

Pampeluna.  54 

Pantagruel,  103 

Papal  State,  76 

Pardaillan,  M.  de,  183  '.^  1^%-%%^^ 

Pare,  Ambroise,  140,  141,  228,^232/348 

Paris,  60,  147,  148,  155,  182,"  216,  219, 
248,  261,  263,  265-267,  281,  282,  287, 
290,  293.  295,  307,  308,  319,  321,  341, 
388,  412;  Parliament  of.  162,  378, 
382,  384  ;  Reformers  in,  174  ;  siege  of, 
294  ;   tapestry  factory  in,  362 

Parliaments,  the,  378 

Parma,  52 

Duke  of,  see  Farnese,  Alessandro 

Parquet,  the  (Bar),  381-383 

Pas-de-Suse,  80 

Pasquier,  Etiennc,  211,  223,  338-342 

426 


Passau,  Treaty  of,  139 

Paul  III,  Pope,  135 

Paulet,  M-,  382 

Paillette,  the  (tax),  382,  392 

Paulin,  Captain,  162 

Pa  via.  Battle  of,  60,  61,  83,  87.  89.  147 

Certosa  of,  20 
Pellicier.  Guillaume,  105 
Penicauds,  the,  362 
Penitents  of  Our  Lady,  245 
Penthievre,  Count  of,  90 
Periers,  Bonaventure  des,  102 
Perigord,  180,  347 
Perigueux,  279,  397 
Peronne,  249,  258 
Perpignan,  siege  of,  343 
Perreol,  Jean,  108 
Perrin,  343 
Perron,  du,  310 
Pesaro,  27 

Pescara,  Marquis  of,  17,  61,  64,  66,  67,  69 
Peter  Martyr,  199 
Petigliano,  34 
Philii)  the  Fair,  Archduke  48 

Augustus,  352-354     -  '-■r^^ 

Philip  II  of  Spain,   143-145,   147,-148, 

150,  151,  153,  197,  198,  202,  213-215, 

224,    225,    236,    256,    257,    291,    297, 

300-303,  308,  321 
Pibrac  231 
Picardy,  79,  81,  141,  148,  157,  293,  301, 

367,  375,  399 
Picpus,  Order  of,  404 
Piedmont,  6,  26,  79,  135,  151,  152,  399 
Piero  of  Milan,  108 
Pierre-Encise,  28 
Pilon,     Germain,     244,     358-360 ;      his 

tomb  of  Birague,  360 
Pindar,  340 
Piolant,  Mme.  de,  275 
Pisa,  15,  18 
Pisani,  Marquis  of,  299 
Pisseleu,  Anne  de,  see  d'fitampes,  Mme. 
Pizzighettone,  fortress  of,  62,  64 
Pius  III,  Pope,  30 
Place,  Pien-e  de  la,  162 
Placentia.  15,  19,  52 
Planche,  Regnier  de  la,  129,  175,  179 
Plato.  340 

Pleiade,  the,  328,  339,  343,  345,  350 
Plessis,  Chateau  du,  1,  281 
Plessis-Mornay,  du,  281,  299,  320 
Pliny,  348 
Plutarch.  340,  362 
Po,  valley  of  the,  55,  60,  75 
Poggio  Reale,  17 

Poissy,  51  ;  Colloquy  of,  199,  200 
Poitiers,  80,  169,  174,  242,  388 

Diane  de,   119,   125-131,   132,   145, 
352,  355 


INDEX 


Poitiers,  Edict  of,  252,  320,  321 

Jean  de,  125 
Poitou,  oS,  62,  261,  368 
Poland,  238,  245,  246 . 
PoUajuolo,  8 
Polybius,  264 
Pomperant,  M.  de,  59,  61 
Poncher,  Etienne,  23,  25,  34,  35 
Pont.  Chateau  de,  351 

I'ifiveque  cheeses,  368 
Pont-a-Mousson,  138 
Pont  d' Olivet,  210 
Pontoise,  282 
Portail  (surgeon),  284 
Postel,  Guiilaumc,  105,  106 
Pot,  Philippe,  5 
Potier,  President,  279 
Pougues,  368 
Poullain,  Nicolas,  268 
Poyet,  Chancellor,  91 
Praet,  Louis  de,  see  Bruges,  Louis  de 
Pre-aux-Clercs,  174 
Premonstrants,  404 
Primaticcio,  Francesco,  115,  116 
Provence,  10,  58,  62-64.  68,  79,  161,  213, 

216,  291,  368,  375,  390,  391  ;  invaded, 

60 
Puylaurens,  205 

Quebec,  319 

Rabelais,  103,  335,  347.  367 
Rabutim.  Frangois  de,  147,  149 
Rambouillet.  270 

M.  de,  273,  287 
Ramee,  see  Ramus 
Ramus,  Pierre,  233,  347.  348 
Rapallo,  14,  18 
Raphael,  362 
Ravaillac,  326 

Ravenna,  34  ;  Battle  of,  36,  88 
Raymond,  Florimond  de,  158 
Rebecco,  Battle  of,  59 
Recollets,  404 
Recruiting,  78,  179 
Reformation,  the,  167 
Religious  orders,  403,  404 
Renaissance,  the  French,  106,  107,  109, 

112 
Renaudie,  F.  de  Barry,  Sieur  de  la,  180- 

184 
Rene  of  Anjou,  King,  108 
Renee,  Princess,  daughter  of  Louis  XII, 

38 
Rennes.  378 

Rentignv,  Mme.  de,  103 
Renty,  Battle  of,  142 
Resnel,  ]Marquis  of,  231,  233 
Retz,  Mme.  dc,  266,  346 
Rheims,  279,  306 


Ricasoli,  129 

Richelieu,  Cardinal,  340,  370 

Rincon,  78,  81 

Riom,  388 

Robbia,  Luca  della,  123 

Robertet  family,  92 

Florimond,  23,  63,  180,  375 
Roche-Flavin,  La,  371,  383 
Rochefort,  Guy  de,  23 
Rochefoucauld,  La,  210,  231,  233 
Rochelle,  La,  220,  252 
Roche-sur-Yon,  Prince  of,  139 
Rohan,  Pierre  de,  see  Gie 
Romagnano.  Battle  of,  59 
Romano,  Criulio,  362 
Rome,  16,  20,  36,  107  224,  290,  302,  305, 

308-310,  350,  351,  357,   375;  Church 

of,  167  ;  siege  and  sack  of.  74,  75,  77 
Ronsard,  Pierre,  123,  328,  339,  343-345, 

350,  358 
Rosny,  Chateau  de,  293 
Rosny,  Maximilion,  229,  308,  311,  400  ; 

see  also  vSully,  Duke  of 
Rosso,  II,  100,  115,  116 
Rostaing,  Tristan  de,  210 
Rouen,  38,  126,  205,  212,  235,  265,  279, 

308,  378,  388  ;  Cathedral,  358 
Roussel,  Gerard,  157,  158,  169 
Roussillon,  3G0 
Roy,  M.,  360 

Sable,  Peace  of,  6,  7 
Sainctes,  Claude  de,  205 
Saint-Andre,  Comte  de,  6 
Jacques  Albon  de,  131 
Marshal  de,  133,  142,  147,  150,  177, 
197,  207,  209,  212 
St.  Angelo,  Castle  of,  74,  75 
Saint-Aubin-du-Cormier,  Battle  of,  6,  23 
Saint-Aulaire,  Mme.  de,  334 
Saint   Bartholomew,   Massacre   of,   216, 
232-238,  247,  248,  250,  267,  341,  348, 
355,  356,  358,  364,  369 
Saint-Bris,  Conference  of,  241.  262 
Saint-Cloud,  269,  282,  283,  286,  288 
Saint  Denis,  7,  40,  219,  284,  294,  297, 

304,  305,  325,  356 
Saint-Etienne,  Toulouse  (church),  389 
Saint-Gelais.  Octavien  de,  19 

Mellin  de,  21,  123 
Saint-Germain  (registrar),  167 
Saint-Gcrmain-rAuxeiTois  (church),  232, 

358 
Saint-Germain-cn-Layc,  41, 113, 199, 331, 
409 
Peace  of,  222,  225 
Saint-Legcr,  120 
Saint  Louis  (Louis  IX),  10,  5C,  114,  200, 

255,  377 
Saint-Luc,  257 

427 


INDEX 


Saint-Maclou  (church),  358 
Saint-Maixent,  262 
Saint-Maur,  Chateau  de,  355 
Saint-Mesgrin  ("  minion  "),  257 
Saint-Paul,  Count  of,  61 
Saint-Quentin,  151,  311  ;   Battle  of,  133, 

145-148 
Saint-Saturnin,  Chapel  of,  1 14 
Saint- Vallier,     58 ;      see    also    Poitiers, 

Jean  de 
Sainte-Beuve,  Mme.  de,  409 
Sainte-Chapelle,  378 
Saintonge,  368 
Salic  Law,  152,  301,  302,  371 
Salignac,  Bertrand  de,  141 
Salluste,  G.  de,  see  Bartas 
Saluces,  313 

Salviati,  his  portrait  of  Aretino,  115 
Sancy,  Mme.  de,  280,  282 

Harley  de,  399 
Sanuto,  15 

San  Yuste,  Monastery  of,  144 
Sanzav,  M.  de,  217 
Sappho,  343 
Sariac,  276 

Satyre  Menippee,  300,  306 
Saumur,  263,  280 
Savonarola,  Girolamo.  15 
Savoy,  79,  80,  135,  151,  152,  366,  375 

Duke  of,  14,  169,  170.  198,  291 

Duke  Charles  III  of,  79 

Duke   Charles   Emmanuel   of,   313, 
324 

Duke  Emmanuel  Philibert  of,  142, 
146,  147,  151.  153 
Saxony,  Duke  of,  48 

Maurice,  Elector  of,  136,  137,  139 
Scamberg,  367 
Sceve,  Maurice,  343 
Schinner,  Matthaus,  46 
Schmalkalden.  League  of,  78 
Schonberg,  236,  301 
Schwiz,  46 

Secretaries  of  State,  375 
Sega.  Philip,  296 
Seguier,  President,  165 
Seine,  270 

Selve,  Jean  de,  65,  69,  70 
Semblan^ay,    Jacques    de    Beaune    de, 

98-100 
Seminara,  Battle  of,  30 
Semonneux,  Les,  299 
Senarj)ont,  M.  de,  149 
Seneca,  169 
Seneschals,  385,  396 
Senlis,  Treaty  of,  14 
Serlio,  114,  349 
Serres,  Olivier,  318.  406 
Serveto  (Servetus)  Miguel,  173 
Seurre,  M.  de,  210 

428 


Seville,  71 

Seyssel,  Claude  de,  37 
Sforza,  Catherine,  236 
family,  26,  52 
Francesco,  66,  79 
Gian  Galeazzo,  11,  15,  16 
Ludovico,  11,  12-14,  16,  18,  28-28, 

36 
Maximilian,  36,  45,  46,  47 
Shakespeare,  338 
Sibilet,  346 
Sicily,  12 

Sickingen,  Franz  von,  50,  55 
Siena,  145 

Sincerus,  Jodocus,  367 
Sixteen,  the,  257,   262,   265,   267,   270, 

279,  297,  298 
Sixtus  V,  261,  280,  291,  296 
Smith  (English  ambassador),  210 
Soissons,  266,  296,  301,  388  ;    Hotel  de, 

266,  333  ;  Peace  of,  81 
Solario,  Andrea,  115 
Solesmes,  sculptures  at,  109 
Solyman  the  Great,  78 
Somme,  the,  312 
Soranzo,  Giovanni,  96,  119,  174 
Sorbonne,  279,  308 
Sourdeau,  Denis,  112 

Jacques,  110 
Spain,  33,  48,  52,  53,  65,  75,  118,  143, 
145,  151,  193,  226,  252,  294,  296,  300, 
310,  312,  323,  375 
Spires,  138 

Spurs,  Battle  of  the,  37 
Stapoul,  see  Lefevre 

States-General,  the,  4,  5,  70,  189,  248, 
250,  251,  256,  258,  259,  264,  271,  272, 
274,  279,  280,  288,  293,  299-301,  305, 
371 
Strasburg.  138 
Strozzi,  Piero.  140,  145,  149 
Sullv,  Duke  of,  281,  299,  313-319,  323, 

326 
Suresnes,  367  ;  Conferences  of,  301,  302 
Suriano,  Michele,  367 
Swiss     Guards,     94;      Hundred,     399; 

troops,  268,  269,  292,  399 
Switzerland,  218,  280,  282,  343,  375 
Synod,  first  Protestant,  174 
Syria,  105 

Taille,  the  (tax),  3.  272,  318,  391 

Taillon,  the  (tax),  392 

Tapestry,  361,  362 

Tarascon,  79 

Tardif  (counsellor),  297 

Tavannes,  118,  129,  213,  219-221,  226, 

230,  235,  138 
Taxation,  387-392 
Teligny,  231,  233 


INDEX 


Tennis,  popularity  of,  412 

Tennes,  M.  de.  145,  150,  275 

Theocritus,  340 

Therouanne,  141 

Thionville,  150,  151 

Third  Estate,  407-409;  411 

Thou,  de,  188,  229,  235,  279,  301,  332 

Thouars,  217 

Three  Estates,  the,  401,  402 

Throckmorton,  Sir  Nicholas,  208 

Thyard,  Pontius  de,  339,  343 

Ticino,  the,  59 

Tillet,  du,  181 

Titian's  Magdalen,  115 

Toledo,  65-67,  71 

Toul,  134,  137,  138,  366 

Toulouse.  195.  206,  213,  235,  279,  341, 

378-382,  390.  397 
Tourelles.  Les  (fortress),  209 
Tournav,  361 
Tourneiles,  Hotel  des,  42,  94,  95,  153, 

166,  355 
Tournes,  Jean  de,  339 
Toumon,    Cardinal    de,    91,    159,    197. 
200 
F.  de.  see  Embruu 
Tours.  1.  4,  33,  35,  174,  207,  216,  242, 

280,   290.   388 ;    sculptures   at,    109 ; 

tapestry  factory  at,  362 
Toury,  207 

Toussaint.  Jacques,  105 
Tremollle.  Louis  de  la,  6,  23,  27,  37,  61, 

288  294 
Trent'  Council  of,  215,  242,  311 
Treves,  Archbishop  of,  48,  50 
Treviso,  34 
Triboulet,  40 
Trinqueau,  see  Neveu,  P. 
TrivTilzio,  Gian  Giacomo,  26,  27 
Troyes,  213,  217,  235,  279 
Tuileries,  269  ;  building  of  the,  352,  355, 

357 
Turenne,  Vicomte  de,  241 
Turin,  151,  341 
Turkey,  135 
Turkish  Alliance,  78 
Tuscany,  15  ;  Grand-Duke  of,  317,  322 
Tussanus,  see  Toussaint 
Tyrol,  139 

Ulpian,  342 

United  Provinces,  252,  253,  254 

Unterwalden,  46 

Uri,  46 

Ursuline  nuns,  404 

Val,  36S 
Valencia,  341 
Valenciennes,  55,  361 


Valentinois,    Duchess    of,    see    Poitiers, 
Diane  de 

Duchy  of,  24 
Valery,  Chateau  de,  218,  351 
Valette,  La,  257,  258 
Valins,  209 
Valois  Chapel,  359 

House  of,  191 
Valromey,  313 
Vassy.  Massacre  of,  203,  206 
Vatable,  105,  106 
Vatican,  the,  20  ;  sacked,  74 
Vaucelles.  Truce  of,  144 
Vaudemont,  Louise  de,  see  Louise,  Queen 
Vaudois,  the,  161 
Vaugirard,  282 
Velasco.  310 
Vence,  375 
Vendome,  205,  263,  296,  344 

Cesar,  Duke  of.  312 
Venice.  Republic  of,  13,  18,  26,  27,  33, 

34,  66,  73,  105,  245 
Verdun,  134, 137-139,  366 
Verger,  Chateau  du,  32,  38 
Vergnetcs,  289 
Vermandois,  347 
Verncuil,  5.  351 

Marquise  de,  323,  409 
Verona,  34 
Versoris,  250 

Vervins.  Peace  of,  312.  399 
Vesc,  Etienne  de,  1,  12,  17 
Vicenza,  34 
Vichy,  368 
Vieilleville,  130,  153 
Vigne,  Andre  de  la,  19 

M.  de,  152 
Villanova,  151 
Villars,  187,  197 
Villars  Brancas.  298,  308 
Villerov,  92.  243,  259,  266,  291,  297-299, 

301,303,309,324 
Villers-Cotterets,  Chateau  de,  113,  351 
Vimory,  Battle  of,  263 
Vincennes,  41,  111,  204,  270,  377 
Vinci,  Leonardo  da,  his  Gioconda,  115 
Viole,  Claude,  167 
Visconti,  Gian  Galcazzo,  26 

Valentina,  26 
Vitruvius,  349.  351.  357,  358 
Vitry,  Governor,  305,  307 

Watebled,  see  Vatable 
Wcissenburg,  138 
Wentworth,  Lord,  149 
Willaert,  364 
Woad,  culture  of,  368 

Zenale,  11 


Printed  by  Ballantyne,  Hanson  and  Co.  Ltd. 

At  the  Bal/antt/ne  Press 

London  and  Edinburgh 


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